Dr. Edward Calvin Kendall was a distinguished American biochemist born on March 8, 1886, in South Norwalk, Connecticut. He earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1910 and subsequently joined the Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota, in 1914 as head of the Biochemistry Section. Kendall advanced to become professor of physiological chemistry at the Mayo Clinic in 1921, establishing himself as a leading figure in biochemical research during a transformative period for endocrinology. His early career was marked by significant contributions to thyroid hormone research and fundamental biochemical processes at one of America's premier medical research institutions. After a distinguished tenure at Mayo, Kendall retired in 1951 and assumed the position of visiting professor of biochemistry at Princeton University, where he continued his scientific pursuits until his death.
Kendall's most groundbreaking achievement was the isolation of cortisone from the adrenal cortex in 1935, initially designated as Compound E in his research. Building on this discovery, he collaborated with physician Philip S. Hench to demonstrate cortisone's remarkable therapeutic effects on rheumatoid arthritis in 1948, marking a revolutionary advance in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Earlier in his career, Kendall had successfully isolated thyroxine, the active principle of the thyroid gland, representing the first successful isolation of a pure hormone. He also crystallized and determined the chemical structure of glutathione, a compound vital to biological oxidation-reduction reactions, further establishing his reputation for meticulous biochemical investigation.
For these seminal contributions, Kendall shared the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Philip S. Hench and Tadeus Reichstein, recognizing their collective work on adrenal cortex hormones. His research directly enabled the development of corticosteroid therapies that have alleviated suffering for millions of patients with inflammatory conditions worldwide. After retiring from the Mayo Clinic, Kendall continued his biochemical investigations at Princeton University and in collaboration with Merck laboratories until his death. The methodologies he developed for isolating and synthesizing adrenal hormones paved the way for industrial-scale production of corticosteroids and subsequent generations of therapeutic agents. Kendall's rigorous scientific approach and transformative discoveries cemented his legacy as a pioneer whose work continues to influence medical practice and biochemical research more than half a century after his death on May 4, 1972.
