Joseph L. Goldstein

Goldstein is unmarried. He likes listening to classical music in his leisure time.

Joseph Leonard Goldstein was born on April 18, 1940, in Kingstree, South Carolina. His parents Fannie (Alpert) and Isadore E. Goldstein owned a clothing store. He was their only son.

He was interested in science from a young age and went to the Washington and Lee University in Lexington, graduating with a BS degree in chemistry, summa cum laude, in 1962.

He then attended Southwestern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas and earned his MD degree in 1966. During his final year, Donald W. Seldin, the Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine, offered Goldstein a future faculty position if he would become trained in genetics and return to Dallas.

After receiving his MD degree, he moved to Boston as an Intern and Resident in Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. There he met Michael S. Brown with who he would form a deep friendship and long term scientific collaboration in future.

Joseph L. Goldstein moved to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, after completing his residency. There he worked in biochemical genetics as advised by Seldin and returned to the Southwestern Medical Center in 1972, accepting a post as the head of the newly-created Division of Medical Genetics. He was also appointed Assistant Professor in Seldin's Department of Internal Medicine.

Around this time his formal scientific collaboration with Brown began. He steadily rose through the ranks and was made Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in 1974 and Professor in 1976.

Goldstein and Brown began a focused study on the cholesterol present in the human bloodstream. Their intensive research led to the discovery that low-density lipoproteins (LDL)—the primary cholesterol-carrying particles—are withdrawn from the bloodstream into the body’s cells by receptors on the cells’ surface.

They also performed research on familial hypercholesterolemia, a disorder in which the body’s tissues are incapable of removing cholesterol from the bloodstream. They found out that the lack of sufficient LDL receptors causes the disorder. Over the course of their work they also helped to develop drugs for lowering blood cholesterol levels.

In 1977, Goldstein was made Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas and Paul J. Thomas Professor of Medicine and Genetics. He was named Regental Professor of the University of Texas in 1985. From 1973 to 1985, he and Brown together published over a 100 major papers.

Joseph L. Goldstein along with his colleague Michael Brown made many key contributions to the understanding of cholesterol in the bloodstream of human beings. Their investigation of the processes affecting the accumulation of cholesterol in the bloodstream led to the development of statin drugs, a class of lipid-lowering medications that are effective in cholesterol reduction in those with high cholesterol.