Clinical chemist and educator also studied genetic and cognitive diseases.
Abraham Saifer (1911-1995)
Shirley Schoenfeld Abramson Saifer (1919-1992)
When Abraham Saifer’s son Steffen presented his PhD dissertation at Portland State University in 1996, he dedicated it to his father “for his loving and enthusiastic support and for being such a wonderful role model: He was even older than I am now when he got his doctorate.”
Abraham Saifer may have waited until he was 50 to get his PhD, but he was a busy man. The father of three was a clinical chemist, a researcher, and an educator.
Abraham was born November 13, 1911, in Philadelphia to Michael and Eva Stern Saifer, both Russian immigrants. The family moved to Brooklyn when Abraham was in grade school. He graduated from the City College of New York with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering.
After working as a clinical chemist in medical centers in New York City, Abraham was drafted and served in the Army from 1942 to 1946 as chief of the Chemistry Section, 7th Medical Laboratory, 3rd Army, Medical Services Corps.
Shirley Schoenfeld was born April 1, 1919, in Brooklyn to Max and Ida Schoenfeld. In 1941, she married Aaron Abramson, and they had a daughter, Madlyn. Aaron was drafted by the Navy in World War II and died May 10, 1945, in Subic Bay, Batangas, Philippines.
On June 5, 1948, Shirley married Abraham Saifer. They lived in Brooklyn, where they raised three children.
In 1950, Abraham joined the staff of Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn as chief of the biochemistry department and its affiliate, the Isaac Albert Research Institute, dedicated to preserving brain health and preventing cognitive decline. Abraham held his dual clinical chemistry lab and research positions for the next 27 years. In 1961, at age 50, he received a PhD in chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of New York in Brooklyn. In 1968, he was promoted to associate director of laboratories.
While he was working full-time in the lab, Abraham passed on his knowledge and research to the next generation. From 1959 to 1961, he was associate professor of biochemistry at Brooklyn College of Pharmacy of Long Island University. And in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he taught clinical laboratory sciences at Hunter College.
He also worked for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) as both chairman and secretary-treasurer of the metropolitan section, and a member of the editorial board. In his spare time, he published more than 125 scientific papers on topics ranging from protein-flocculation reactions to protein-ion binding. His research included biochemical studies of human brain tissue, with special emphasis on Tay-Sachs disease and cerebral lipidoses.
In 1967, Abraham received the AACC’s Van Slyke Award, reflecting his development of a chemistry-based analysis method to study proteins in brain serum. Although his focus was on Tay-Sachs disease, the protein analysis method also applied to the study of other protein-defective genetic diseases.
His method solved the problem of acquiring adequate amounts of the disease-triggered protein from blood serum samples. It involved combining the coagulation of the serum sample to remove the charge on the proteins with a method of binding the proteins together—a procedure known as flocculation—to have enough to be detected using microscope procedures available at the time.
In 1979, the AACC gave him its highest honor for his research: The Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry.
Shirley Saifer died December 27, 1992, at their winter home in Florida. Abraham died July 29, 1995, at age 83.
The Saifers fund was established in 1992 and it has helped nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, Clean Energy Group, and Prevent Child Abuse New York.