Seymour Shapiro

Seymour Lester Shapiro (1916 - 1961) was an organic chemist best known for his pioneering work on a class of drugs used to treat symptoms of adult-onset diabetes. Phenformin was marketed under the name "DBI" until it was taken off the market after being linked to increased incidence of lactic acidosis, a potentially fatal condition.

Shapiro was born in New York City, New York, on October 1, 1916. After graduation at age 14 from the storied Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn, New York) in 1931, he entered Brooklyn College where he majored in Chemistry and received the degree of Bachelor of Science in June 1935 at the age of 19. In 1934 while a junior in Brooklyn College, he tied for first place in a citywide contest in handling difficult problems of calculus. He completed the degree of Master of Science in June 1937 at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now part of New York University), New York. His thesis, "Equimolecular Condensation of Aldehydes with Phenols" was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) in 1937.

During the period 1936 - 41, Shapiro was employed in the Railway Mail Service and as a quantitative organic microanalyst at Van Ameringen-Haebler in Elizabeth, NJ (later part of International Flavors & Fragrances). In July, 1941 he entered the United States Army.

His initial tour within the United States included an assignment covered by Time magazine. During this period he was assigned the task of making injectable poison ivy extract for use in treatment of poison ivy infections. While it proved quite successful on the troops, Shapiro himself developed an extreme sensitivity to the extract and the ivy plant itself.

He was then assigned as Toxicologist in the 15th Medical General Laboratory and then as Chemist of the Board for the Study of the Severely Wounded, Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The findings of this group were published in the book entitled, "The Physiologic Effects of Wounds." As an additional outgrowth of this work, Shapiro published "A Suggested Simplification of Blood Volume Analysis Using the Dye T 1824,"

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