Andrew V. Schally
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Andrew V. Schally
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977
Born: 30 November 1926, Wilno (now Vilnius), Poland (now Lithuania)
Affiliation at the time of the award: Veterans Administration Hospital, New Orleans, LA, 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, Andrew Schally and Roger Guillemin separately extracted a sufficient amount of releasing hormone to determine its structure in 1969. They subsequently were able to produce it with chemical methods.
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Nobel Prizes 2018
Their work and discoveries range from cancer therapy and laser physics to developing proteins that can solve humankind’s chemical problems. The work of the 2018 Nobel Laureates also included combating war crimes, as well as integrating innovation and climate with economic growth. Find out more.
