Seymour S. Kety

Seymour S. Kety (August 25, 1915 – May 25, 2000) was an American neuroscientist who was credited with making modern psychiatry a rigorous and heuristic branch of medicine by applying basic science to the study of human behavior in health and disease. After Kety died, his colleague Louis Sokoloff noted that: "He discovered a method for measuring blood flow in the brain, was the first scientific director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and produced the most-definitive evidence for the essential involvement of genetic factors in schizophrenia."

Childhood

Seymour Kety was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised there. Seymour was born in 1915. He was raised in humble family but was intellectually challenged and stimulated. Kety suffered from an automobile accident to his foot when he was a young child. He could still walk but was slightly physically impaired.

Schooling

He went to primary and secondary schools in Philadelphia. When Seymour reached high school, he excelled greatly in Chemistry. He ran experiments in his home in a homemade laboratory. Still living in Philadelphia, Kety attended the prestigious Central High School. He pursued his interest in the physical sciences and also got a knowledge of Greek and Latin. He attended college and medical school in his hometown at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1940. He did a rotating internship at the Philadelphia General Hospital but that was the extent of his clinical training. Kety went into research after his internship.

Kety's First Contribution to Science

During his internship, he married Josephine Gross, a childhood friend. She too was studying to be a doctor. Josephine wanted to be a pediatrician, which inspired Seymour to do research and study more about children. An increase in lead poisoning led to Kety's first contribution to medicine. More and more children came down with lead poisoning because they were chewing one their cribs, coated in paint containing lead. Seymour began to think about citrate to relieve the children of their lead poisoning. Citrate would help flush the lead out of the children's systems through urination. Called a chelating agent, Citrate was the first thing used to help treat heavy metal intoxication.

Kety's Slow Transition to Psychology

Following his internship, Seymour decided to continue his research of lead poisoning. The National Research Council postdoctorate fellowship, received by Kety to continue his research, began in 1942. Kety worked under the supervision of lead poisoning specialist Joseph Aub. Only after Seymour arrived prepared to start his fellowship did he learn that Aub changed his area of study. He was now working with traumatic and hemmoragatic shock. Joseph Aub changed his work to study the shock because it was a time of war, and the research was pressing. While working with Aub, Kety found the circulation of the heart to be fascinating. Instead of returning to Harvard, Kety went to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. While back in Pennsylvania, Seymour worked with Carl Schmidt, an expert in cerebral circulation. Kety became a pharmacology instructor at the university.

Commonly known as a great teacher, Seymour was very popular among his students. Soon, everyone who knew Kety learned that he had a profound interest in cerebral circulation. His desire for knowledge was mostly to understand the process and to measure the flow of blood. Eventually, Kety and Schmidt worked together to form experiments about the cerebral circulation in a human. In time, they found a very effective method of measuring the flow of blood. Their work together was revolutionary.

After collaborating with many doctors on various projects, Seymour S. Kety became the chairman of the department of [[[psychiatry]] at John Hopkins University in 1961. After only one year, Kety resigned due to his lack of experience in psychiatry. He returned to his job as the Chief of Laboratory Science. Seymour, however, continued the research he was working on. He was researching the causes of schizophrenia. His focus was based on the genetical influences that cause the disease.

Kety's Results

He never trained in psychiatry although he changed its course. In 1988 Kety was awarded the NAS Award in the Neurosciences from the National Academy of Sciences.

External links

• Holzman, P.S. 2000. Seymour S. Kety 1915−2000. Nature Medicine 6:727
• Sokoloff, L. Seymour S. Kety. Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences