Schönheimer Medal

Rudolf Schönheimer (born May 10, 1898 Berlin; † September 11, 1941 New York) was a German-American biochemist who emigrated to the USA in 1933 after studying medicine in Berlin and working at the universities of Leipzig and Freiburg.

In 1933 Schönheimer published a landmark paper on the metabolism of cholesterol. In an animal model he was able to demonstrate that the homeostasis of cholesterol is tightly regulated (Schoenheimer, R., and F. Breusch. 1933. Synthesis and destruction of cholesterol in the organism. J. Biol. Chem. 103: 439–448). These early experiments precluded even some of the classic studies of Jacob and Monod On the mechanisms of a negative feedback in bacteria by many years and formed the basis of understanding cholesterol as a risk factor for the development in atherosclerosis.

In the light of this eminent contribution the German Atherosclerosis Society every year gives the Schönheimer Medal to a renowned member of the atherosclerosis research community to honor Rudolf Schönheimer.