Papanicolaou, George Nicholas (1883–1962)

Greek-born US physiologist and microscopic anatomist who derived the vaginal smear test and associated the changes of the vaginal lining with the phases of the ovarian cycle.

While at Cornell, Papanicolaou became interested in reproductive physiology and, in 1917, he and Stockard demonstrated that the vaginal epithelium (lining) of certain mammals, including guinea pigs and humans, undergoes characteristic changes during each phase of the ovarian cycle. These changes were shown later to be influenced by the steroid hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, made by the ovaries.

He went on to show that abnormal cells in the cervix could be identified if a small scrape of the wall of the cervix was taken and observed under the microscope. This work formed the basis of cervical smear testing for cervical cancer.

Papanicolaou was born in Kimi in Greece and studied medicine at the University of Athens, obtaining his MD 1904. After completing a PhD in Munich 1910, he decided to emigrate to the USA and took teaching posts in anatomy in New York and at Cornell Medical School 1914. He was appointed professor of clinical anatomy at Cornell 1924 and then director of the Miami Cancer Institute.