Lerner, Aaron Bunsen

▪ 2008

      American dermatologist

born Sept. 21, 1920 , Minneapolis, Minn.

died Feb. 3, 2007 , New Haven, Conn.

headed a team of researchers at Yale University who in 1958 discovered the hormone melatonin. In searching for a cure for disorders of skin pigmentation such as vitiligo, Lerner and his team found that a hormone isolated from the pineal gland could lighten skin colour in frogs. It proved not to work as he had hoped, but later researchers found that the hormone, melatonin, has an important part in maintaining cycles of wakefulness and rest. Lerner later developed a way to treat vitiligo with transplants of the patient's skin cells grown in culture. He also isolated MSH, or melanocyte-stimulating hormone.

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