Kendall, Edward Calvin (1886-1972)

US biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1950, with Philip Hench and Tadeus Reichstein, for their work on the structure and biological effects of hormones of the adrenal cortex. In 1914 Kendall isolated the hormone thyroxine, the active compound of the thyroid gland. He went on to work on secretions from the adrenal gland, among which he discovered the steroid cortisone.

Kendall was born in Connecticut and studied at Columbia University, New York. From 1914 he worked at the Mayo Foundation, Minnesota, USA, becoming professor there in 1921.

Hench was a physician interested in arthritis who was familiar with the experience that in some situations, such as during pregnancy, patients with arthritis improved. He and Kendall discussed whether cortisone, which Kendall's work had shown to have important metabolic effects, was involved in these temporary improvements. They discovered by giving a severely incapacitated patient cortisone that it was an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.