Oliver H. Lowry

Oliver Howe Lowry (July 18, 1910 – June 29, 1996) was an American biochemist. He devised the Lowry protein assay, the subject of the most-cited scientific paper in history.

Biography

Lowry was the youngest of a family of five children. His father was a teacher and later an administrator in the Chicago public school system. His three brothers and sister all earned graduate degrees in various fields, and Lowry was inspired to emulate his siblings. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for his undergraduate studies, having intended to major in chemical engineering. However, upon the advice of a fellow student, he ended up shifting his focus towards biochemistry. After graduating from Northwestern in 1932, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he sought to study "physiological chemistry". During his second year, a dean of the university offered Lowry admission to the university's MD-PhD program, which he accepted and from which he graduated in 1937. Despite that he earned a medical degree, Lowry never practiced medicine. Lowry was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1957 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1964. He died of Alzheimer's disease, at the age of 85, on June 29, 1996.

Scientific impact Among all his numerous contributions to biochemistry, Lowry is best known for his development of the Lowry protein assay, used in the determination of protein concentrations. As of October 2025, his 1951 paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry describing the protein assay was still the most-highly cited paper in history, with more than 355,000 citations, although Lowry stated it was not the most important paper he had ever written.