Alexander Kolin; UCLA Biophysicist Invented Isoelectric Focusing

Alexander Kolin, 87, UCLA biophysicist who invented isoelectric focusing, a system for separating proteins. Born in Odessa, Russia, Kolin began performing scientific experiments at the age of 6. The family fled to Berlin when he was 12, and subsequent tutoring led him to physics. Eleven years later, after Kolin had begun his doctorate, the family fled the Nazis, and he completed his degree at the German University of Prague in Czechoslovakia. He moved to the United States and, armed with letters of recommendation from Albert Einstein, obtained a job at Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital. Doing research at night, he invented the electromagnetic flow meter, which measures blood flow to different organs. He later taught at the University of Chicago, where he wrote his first textbook on physics and invented isoelectric focusing. The technique enables laboratories to more quickly and completely separate various proteins, viruses, bacteria and other biochemicals and microorganisms. Kolin moved to UCLA to teach biophysics and continue his research in 1956. He retired from the classroom in 1977 but continued to work in the laboratory. Among his honors was the Alexander von Humboldt Award from Germany. On Monday in Los Angeles of cancer.