O noblistce i jej „dziecku, które nigdy nie dorosło” - historia odkrycia fenyloketonurii

Pearl Buck, an American woman, tried to collect money for the treatment and education of her mentally retarded daughter. In 1931 she wrote “The Good Earth” - and then other novels about her life in China for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938. At the same time Asbjorn Fölling, a Norwegian doctor and biochemist, discovered phenylketonuria as a cause of children's mental retardation. Further investigations revealed the destructive influence of a diet on a developing brain of an ill child. But for Carol Buck it was too late. In 1950 Pearl Buck published “The Child Who Never Grew” - a novel about her desperate search for cause of her daughter mental retardation and dramatical trials of finding an appropriate treatment. It was not until the 1960s that screening test were available all over the world and it was definitely confirmed thant phenylketonuria was a causative factor of the Carol's profound mental retardation.