GOLDBLATT, HARRY (14 Mar. 1891-6 Jan. 1977), internationally recognized for his research in high blood pressure, was born in Iowa, the son of Phillip and Jennie Spitz Goldblatt. He grew up in Canada, received a B.A. from McGill University, and graduated from its medical school in 1916. After serving at Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal; the Medical Reserve Corps of the U.S. Army (1917-18), and as resident pathologist of Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, Goldblatt continued his education in Europe. From 1924-27 he was assistant professor of pathology at Western Reserve University; he was associate professor from 1927-35. Between 1935-46 he was professor of experimental pathology and director of WRU's Institute of Pathology. After 7 years as director of medical research at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, Los Angeles, Goldblatt returned to Cleveland, becoming Mt. Sinai's director of laboratories. From 1961 he was director of the Louis D. Beaumont Research Laboratories.
Goldblatt experimented in the early 1930s to discover the cause of essential hypertension, learning that clamping off part of the main arteries to the kidneys caused high blood pressure. Goldblatt tried to prove that renin, in normal kidneys, was the origin of essential hypertension. In 1965, with Dr. Erwin Haas, he isolated 4,000 ampoules of renin and Goldblatt units became the international standard of measurement of human renin. Later, with Drs. Haas and Sharad Deodhar, Goldblatt produced antirenin with acetylated homologous renin. Goldblatt received many honors, most significantly the Scientific Achievement Award of the American Medical Assoc. in 1976. Because of the implications of his work, the American Heart Assoc. established the Dr. Harry Goldblatt Fellowship. Goldblatt married Jeanne Rea on 25 June 1929. They had 2 children: David and Peter. Goldblatt died in Cleveland.
Goldblatt File, Stanley A. Ferguson Archives, University Hospitals.