Peyton Rous: A Brief Biography

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Peyton Rous The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1966 Before Peyton died at the age of ninety, he acquired many accomplishments during his lifetime. He had been acclaimed as an outstanding leader in the field of pathology and particularly in cancer research. Before he received the well-merited award of a Noble prize in 1966, he had worked nonstop for about fifty years and was able to discover numerous astonishing facts, however, through many of those years, his research and hypothesis about cancer causing viruses were greatly disregarded. Rous, however, was extremely excited and interested in every new fact that he discovered during his research. This fulfilled his life and gave him great satisfaction. Peyton Rous was born on October 5, 1879 in Baltimore, MD to Charles Rous, a grain exporter, and Frances Wood, the daughter of a Texas judge. According to The Journal of Experimental Medicine, “His mother’s ancestors were Huguenots who settled in Virginia after the Edict of Nantes. Just before the Civil War in the 1860’s her father, foreseeing disaster, bought land in Texas, moving his big family there after it ended. There he became a judge «riding three counties» and the family throve” (page 1). His father, also from Baltimore, met his mother while visiting Texas and they soon married. Together they returned to Baltimore. His father died early which left his mother with Peyton and his two younger sisters and…show more content…
A few facts about his life that weren’t mentioned above: In 1915, Rous married Marion de Kay, who is the daughter of a scholarly commentator for arts. Together they had three daughters. Rous was appointed a full member of the Rockefeller Institute in. Although Rous was technically retired, he continued to do work and research in his lab. During his retirement, he added about 60 papers to his 100 already published papers. On February 16, 1072, he died of abdominal cancer in New York

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