Alex B. Novikoff

Alex Benjamin Novikoff ( - ) was a Russian–born American biologist who is recognized for his pioneering works in the discoveries of cell organelles. A victim of American Cold War antagonism to communism that he supported, he is also recognized as a public figure of the mid-20th century at the height of McCarthyism in America. As his original discoveries such as cell organelles and autophagy earned other scientists Nobel Prizes, he is regarded as one of the overlooked scientists to get Nobel Prize.

Novikoff's most important achievements were in developing histochemical techniques that were used for discovering and are being used for studying structures and functions of cells. After he developed cell fractionation method, it became possible to identify and isolate cell organelles. He was the first to describe lysosome using electron microscopy; his collaborator Christian de Duve received Nobel Prize for the discovery. He was also the first to understand the process of cell eating, which he called "cytolysomes," now known as autophagy, another Nobel Prize-winning discovery. He developed the method for making liver cancer cells, later called Novikoff hepatoma, which paved the way for cellular experiments in cancer studies.

Being accused of participation in Communist Party as disloyalty to the nation, Novikoff was dismissed in 1953 from the University of Vermont College of Medicine where he was serving as a tenured professor, upon his refusal to cooperate in disclosing his communist friends. He was even denied twice of his willingness to serve in the US Army during the Second World War. Due to lack of substantial evidence, the case itself was dismissed after twenty years. The incident has become popularly known as the "Novikoff Affair", and is the most notable case of MaCarthyism in Vermont. In 1983, after thirty years of his banishment, the university made an apology by presenting him an honorary degree. Provided by Wikipedia