Zvi Laron
| Zvi Laron | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 6, 1927 Czernowitz, Romania (now Ukraine) |
| Citizenship | Israeli |
| Alma mater | Hebrew University Medical School |
| Occupation | pediatric endocrinologist |
| Known for | Laron syndrome |
Zvi Laron (Hebrew: צבי לרון, born February 6, 1927) is an Israeli paediatric endocrinologist, born in Cernăuţi, Romania, a professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University. In 1966, he described the type of dwarfism later called Laron syndrome. His research opened the way to the treatment of many cases of growth hormone disorders and of juvenile diabetes.
Laron was born on February 7, 1927, to a Jewish family in the Bukovinian city of Cernăuţi (Czernowitz), then in Romania (now in Ukraine). At the age of 6, he moved with his family to another Bukovinian town, Rădăuţi. Following the June 1941 invasion of the USSR by Nazi Germany, Romania allied itself with Nazi Germany and regained Northern Bucovina (which had been annexed by the USSR in 1940), the 14 years old child and his family were deported to the concentration camps of Transnistria. There he had the chance to survive as a worker in a factory, which was founded in Mogilev by his uncle, Siegfried Sami Jagendorf (1885–1970), in order to save as many Jewish deportees as possible. Accordingly, Laron became a licensed turner.
After the end of the war, Laron was able to complete his high school studies and in 1945 he commenced his studies in medicine at the newly founded Medical School (Institutul medico-farmaceutic) in the town of Timişoara, in western Romania. He was an active member of the Zionist students movement "Hasmonea", and left Romania in 1947 in order to emigrate illegally to Eretz Israel, then Mandatory Palestine. The ship of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe, "Pan York" (nicknamed in Hebrew "Kibbutz Galuyot") was captured in the Mediterranean Sea by the British navy and its passengers, including Laron, were deported to internment camps in Cyprus. After the proclamation of the State of Israel in May 1948, Laron was freed and allowed to enter the country. After his arrival, he was recruited to work in Jaffa's "Dajani" and Tel Hashomer's hospitals. In 1952, he graduated with MD from the Hadassah Hospital Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem. He then did his internship at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. During 1956–1957, he was a research and clinical fellow in paediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, and at a hospital in Pittsburgh, while his fellowships was focalized especially on infantile endocrinology.
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