Giants in History: Tsai-Fan Yu

The doctor who alleviated gout 

Tsai-Fan Yu ( 1911 - 02 March 2007)

China, United States

Tsai-Fan Yu (1911 – 2 March 2007) was a Chinese-American physician and researcher who was the first female full professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She discovered that gout, a condition characterized by the painful inflammation of joints, was caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the bloodstream. She also established a clinic at Mount Sinai to treat gout and tested drugs to treat the condition. Yu and her colleagues showed that probenecid, colchicine and allopurinol were effective at treating gout by increasing excretion of uric acid, reducing inflammation and preventing the formation of uric acid respectively. These drugs are still used to treat the condition today.  

Institution: 
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Academic discipline: