Voronoff, Serge

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VORONOFF, SERGE

VORONOFF, SERGE (1866–1951), surgeon and physiologist. Born in Russia, he was educated in Paris, where he served as chief surgeon of the Russian Hospital. He was later appointed director of the biological laboratory of Ecole des Hautes Études and director of experimental surgery at the Collège de France at Nice. When the Nazis occupied France. he fled to Portugal and later to the United States.

Among Voronoff 's early successes was an increase in the yield of wool from sheep by gland transplants. Encouraged by the results, he tried to find a means to rejuvenation, attempting to stimulate the flow of sex hormones by the transplantation of glands from higher primates to human subjects. He claimed that the human life-span could thus be prolonged to 140 years. Voronoff attempted to cure thyroid deficiencies by similar means. His publications include Traité des greffes humaines… (1916); Conquest of Life… (1928); Sources of Life (1943); Love and Thought in Animals and Men (1937); and From Cretin to Genius (1941).