{{Short description|American endocrinologist and researcher}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} '''Jacob Robbins''' (September 1, 1922{{spnd}}May 12, 2008) was an American endocrinologist known for his research on the thyroid gland. He established the "free thyroxine hypothesis", which holds that thyroxine is only active when not bound to protein, and performed long-term research on the incidence of thyroid cancer caused by radiation in survivors of nuclear fallout.
==Biography== Robbins was born in 1922 in Yonkers, New York. He attended Cornell University, completing an undergraduate degree in chemistry in 1944 and graduating from Cornell Medical College in 1947.<ref name=ETA>{{cite web|url=https://www.eurothyroid.com/about/met/robbins.html|title=Jacob Robbins (1922-2008)|publisher=European Thyroid Association|first1=Giancarlo|last1=Vecchio|first2=Christian|last2=Beckers|accessdate=July 12, 2020}}</ref> He began working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 1948 before moving to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1954 as an investigator. At NIH, he was chief of the Clinical Endocrinology Branch (part of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) from 1963 to 1991.<ref name=thyroid>{{cite journal|title=Jacob (Jack) Robbins, M.D. 1922–2008|journal=Thyroid|year=2008|volume=18|issue=9|doi=10.1089/thy.2008.1547|first1=Jamshed R.|last1=Tata|first2=Arthur B.|last2=Schneider|pages=1031–1032}}</ref><ref name=NYT>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/health/02robbins.html|work=The New York Times|title=Jacob Robbins, 85, Thyroid Researcher, Is Dead|first=Jeremy|last=Pearce|date=June 2, 2008|accessdate=July 12, 2020}}</ref>
Robbins worked alongside Joseph E. Rall, another endocrinologist, during much of his career at NIH. Robbins and Rall founded the "free thyroxine hypothesis",<ref name=thyroid/> which held that thyroxine—a hormone produced by the thyroid gland—is only effective when it is "free", or not bound to binding proteins. These observations guided the development of targeted doses for thyroxine replacement for patients with hypothyroidism.<ref name=NYT/> Robbins and Rall also performed important research on thyroid cancer caused by radiation; they followed survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to monitor long-term outcomes.<ref name=WP>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051503987.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Jacob Robbins; NIH Scientist Known for Thyroid Research|first=Joe|last=Holley|date=May 16, 2008|accessdate=July 12, 2020}}</ref> They also monitored inhabitants of the Marshall Islands who had been exposed to radiation during American hydrogen bomb tests and children who had been exposed to the fallout of the Chernobyl disaster.<ref name=WP/> Robbins campaigned for wider availability of potassium iodide, a drug that prevents thyroid cancer after radiation exposure by blocking the absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid, for people living near nuclear power stations.<ref name=NYT/> His other research topics included the effectiveness of iodine-131 therapy in certain types of thyroid cancer, the use of triiodothyronine (T3) prior to iodine-131 therapy, the relationship between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroglobulin, the use of lithium to increase iodine-131 uptake, and the safety of weekly dosing of thyroxine replacement compared with daily dosing.<ref name=thyroid/>
Robbins served as editor-in-chief of ''Endocrinology'' from 1968 to 1972 and as president of the American Thyroid Association from 1974 to 1975.<ref name=ETA/> He was awarded the Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal in 1971<ref name=WP/> and received an honorary degree from the University of Messina in 2001.<ref name=ETA/> He died of a cardiac arrest at the NIH Clinical Center on May 12, 2008.<ref name=WP/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Jacob}} Category:1922 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American endocrinologists Category:American medical researchers Category:People from Yonkers, New York Category:National Institutes of Health faculty Category:Weill Cornell Medical College alumni