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Laid groundwork for cholesterol drugs
Nobel Prize winner Dr. Michael S. Brown, who grew up in Elkins Park and graduated from Cheltenham High School, was welcomed to Chestnut Hill College on Sept. 11 by Lakshmi Atchison, professor of biology at CHC (right) and Sr. Carol Jean Vale, CHC president (left). Dr. Brown was invited to CHC in order to expose students to cutting-edge research in the biomedical field.
In an interview with the Local prior to Brown’s presentation, the Cheltenham High School graduate said he and a friend used to build their equipment from various parts or kits. “I would usually finish around 3 a.m.,” Brown said. “I would plug it in and blow every fuse in the house. My parents were not very happy with this hobby. What made it scientific was you had to go back over the entire thing step by step and figure out what you had done wrong. And that’s the essence of science because experiments never work the first time.”
He said it was a good introduction into science. “I wish we didn’t have courses called science with a capital ‘S.’ It’s ridiculous. Science isn’t something that is dictated by some text book. There is science in cooking. There is science in everything. In fabrics in the clothes we are wearing. There is science in every aspect of our lives.”
Brown and his longtime colleague Dr. Joseph Goldstein received the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism.” Their findings led to the development of statin drugs, the cholesterol-lowering compounds that are used by millions of Americans as some of the most widely prescribed medications in the U.S., helping to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
