1940-

American Geneticist

Nobel laureate Joseph Goldstein was the first person to describe the process by which cholesterol is metabolized and accumulates in the human body. The understanding of the relationship between cholesterol, blood lipids, and heart disease has been one of the most important health discoveries of the twentieth century, enabling the development of new drugs and diet regimens to lower blood cholesterol levels.

Goldstein was born April 18, 1940, in Sumter, South Carolina. His family owned a clothing store in Kingstree, South Carolina. Goldstein graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1962. He received the doctor of medicine from Southwestern Medical School of the University of Texas Science Center in 1966. Goldstein was offered a faculty position by Donald Seldin, who was impressed by Goldstein, if he would study genetics and return to Dallas to establish a division of medical genetics in the...