Francis Peyton Rous (; October 5, 1879 – February 16, 1970) was an American pathologist at the Rockefeller University known for his works in oncoviruses, blood transfusion and physiology of digestion. A medical graduate from the Johns Hopkins University, he was discouraged to become a practicing physician due to severe tuberculosis. After three years of working as an instructor of pathology at the University of Michigan, he became dedicated researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research for the rest of his career.
His discovery in 1911 that a chicken tumor was caused by a virus (later named Rous sarcoma virus) led to more discoveries and understanding of the role of viruses in the development of certain types of cancer. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in 1966, 55 years after his initial discovery and he remains the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
He and Joseph R. Turner studied methods to make use of blood types for blood transfusion. During World War I, they developed a technique for preserving blood sample by using an acid, citrate. This enabled the first practical storage of blood samples for transfusion and was introduced by Oswald H. Robertson at the front line in Belgium in 1917 as the world's first blood bank.
Early life and education
Rous was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charles Rous and Frances Anderson née Wood. He had two younger sisters. His father, a grain broker, died when he was 11 years of age. He studied at the local public schools up to secondary education. He received a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University from where he obtained a B.A. degree in 1900. He immediately took up medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
While in the second year at the medical school, Rous contracted tuberculosis through his injured finger while performing an autopsy. A tuberculous bone (axillary tuberculous lymphadenitis) developed in his armpit and was surgically removed. He was given leave from the medical school for recovery. His uncle got him a job as a cowboy at a cattle ranch in Texas, where he worked for a year. He was able to resume his medical course in 1904. Due to the disease, he considered himself as unfit to be a physician, or a "real doctor," for which he focused his interest in medical research. He obtained an M.D. degree in 1905.
Career and research
After completing an internship, Rous joined the University of Michigan as an instructor of pathology. Alfred Warthin, head of the pathology department, advised him to study German to pursue specialised pathological course in Germany. To earn extra salary, Warthin arranged for him temporary teaching position at the summer school. He published his first technical paper on white blood cell analysis in the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (now Experimental Biology and Medicine) in 1906. In 1907, he went to Germany for a training course on morbid anatomy at Friedrichstadt Municipal Hospital (Krankenhaus Dresden-Friedrichstadt) in Dresden under Christian Georg Schmorl.
On his way home from Germany, he showed symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis and was sent to the Adirondack Mountains in northeastern Upstate New York for recovery. After his return in 1908, Warthin informed him of a Rockefeller Scholarship for cancer research at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York. Using the grants, he studied lymphocytes on which he published a series of papers in 1908. Simon Flexner, director of the Rockefeller Institute and editor of the Experimental Biology and Medicine which published his papers, recognized his research interest and offered him to lead cancer research at the institute. In 1909, he joined the laboratories as a full-time researcher at Rockefeller. In 1920, he was appointed Member of the Rockefeller Institute, and became Member Emeritus in 1945, the position he occupied till his death.