Roger Guillemin

Facts

Roger Guillemin

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Roger Guillemin
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977

Born: 11 January 1924, Dijon, France

Died: 21 February 2024, Del Mar, CA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: The Salk Institute, San Diego, CA, USA

Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain”

Prize share: 1/4

Work

Hormones are substances that convey signals between different parts of the body and regulate their functions. Around the pituitary in the brain, Releasing hormones serve to release other hormones and are formed around the pituitary gland. The releasing hormones occur in very small amounts. From large quantities of pig brains and lamb brains respectively, Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally separately extracted a sufficient amount of releasing hormone to determine its structure in 1969. They subsequently were able to produce it with chemical methods.

To cite this section
MLA style: Roger Guillemin – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1977/guillemin/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Nobel Prizes and laureates

Eleven laureates were awarded a Nobel Prize in 2023, for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from effective mRNA vaccines and attosecond physics to fighting against the oppression of women.

See them all presented here.
Illustration

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.