Nobel Prize

Robert F Furchgott showed that acetylcholine-induced relaxation of blood vessels was dependent on the endothelium. His “sandwich” experiment set the stage for future scientific development. He used two different pieces of the aorta; one had the endothelial layer intact, in the other it had been removed.

Ferid Murad knew that nitroglycerine caused relaxation of smooth muscle cells. The enzyme, guanylyl cyclase, was activated and increased cyclic GMP, causing relaxation of the muscle. Did nitroglycerin act via release of nitric oxide, NO? He bubbled NO-gas through tissue containing the enzyme; cyclic GMP increased! A new mode of drug action had been discovered!…

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Presentation Speech by Professor Sten Lindahl of the at the Karolinska Institutet, December 10, 1998. Translation of the Swedish text. Professor Sten Lindahl delivering the Presentation Speech for the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Stockholm Concert Hall.   Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen, When Robert Furchgott,…

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I was born in the lovely coastal city of Charleston, S.C. in 1916 and lived there until I was thirteen. In Charleston I first became enamored of “natural history” when I attended nature study classes and field trips to nearby beaches, marshes and woods, sponsored by the Charleston Museum. I became an avid shell collector…

Today it is known that NO is also an important signalling molecule outside the cardiovascular system and has become a useful tool in the practice of medicine:  Neurons in the brain NO can enhance the olfactory sense No is released in increased quantities in inflammation, a fact that can be used for diagnostic purposes  …

The first two decades of my life were spent in the New York City area, where the families of both my parents had settled in the 1920s after immigrating from Italy. My father had been a ship builder in Naples but my mother was still a young child when she came from Sicily. They met…

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Louis Ignarro reported that EDRF relaxed blood vessels. He also identified EDRF as a molecule by using spectral analysis of hemoglobin. When hemoglobin was exposed to EDRF, maximum absorbance moved to a new wave-length; and exposed to NO, exactly the same shift in absorbance occurred! EDRF was identical with NO. A new principle for signalling…