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Izrael Hieger DSc (London) (13 June 1901 – 14 October 1986) was a biochemist whose work focused on carcinogenesis. He discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound.[1] In 1937 Hieger, with colleagues Ernest Kennaway and J. W. Cook, was nominated for a Nobel Prize for work on isolating chemical carcinogenic agents from tar and studies on the relation between chemical constitution and carcinogenic activity.[2]
Hieger was born in Siedlce, Russian Empire (present Republic of Poland), and was the youngest of nine. Preempting the pogrom of 1906, Heiger's parents emigrated with the younger children, settling in London. There he attended Christ's College, Finchley, going on to study at Birkbeck, University of London and University College London. Heiger married Esther (née Bull), and although not a member,[3] financially assisted[4] a Trotskyist group in London run by C.L.R. James, of which Esther and her future husband Earle Birney were a part.[5] Their marriage ended in 1936.[6] In 1943, Hieger married social worker, painter and poet[7] Lois (née Peirson). They had one daughter.
In 1924[8] Hieger joined Kennaway at the Cancer Hospital Research Institute (CHRI). In pioneering work with W. V. Mayneord, the hospital's medical physicist, Hieger discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound.[9] Exploiting a method of fluorescence spectroscopy indicated similar spectra for carcinogenic tars and 1,2-benzanthracene and related polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).[10] In 1931 Hieger painstakingly obtained 7 g of crystalline hydrocarbon from two tonnes of gas-works soft pitch.[11] This was identified as 3:4-benzo(a)pyrene, and highly carcinogenic. The discovery confirmed concerns over the correlation between occupational cancers and industries which involved exposure to tar, coal-gas and synthetic dyes[12] In 1939, Hieger and four colleagues, (Kennaway, Mayneord, J. W. Cook and C. L. Hewett) were awarded the first Anna Fuller Memorial Prize for cancer research.[13]