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Scientists
build on each other's work. Furchgott, while studying the effects
of drugs on blood vessels, discovered that blood vessels dilate
when their surface cells
(the endothelium) signal the muscle cells to relax, using a molecule
he called "endothelium-derived relaxing factor" or EDRF. Murad noticed
that nitroglycerin (which dilates blood vessels) releases the gas
nitric oxide (NO) which relaxes the smooth muscles. Ignarro also
analyzed EDRF and discovered at the same time as Furchgott that
EDRF was truly NO. This was the first evidence that a gas may act
as a signal molecule. NO has recently been found to be important
in fighting infections, regulating blood pressure, and activating
brain functions. For more information about their work, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/press.html
"I think that my greatest pleasure has come
from each first demonstration in my laboratory that experiments
designed to test a new hypothesis developed to explain some earlier,
often puzzling or paradoxical finding, have given results consistent
with the hypothesis." Robert F. Furchgott, Les Prix Nobel, 1998
Robert F. Furchgott was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1916,
with an innate interest in biology and science. He attended both
the Universities of South and North Carolina and did his Ph.D. work
at Northwestern University in Chicago. He worked at Cornell University
Medical College on phosphates, Washington University in St. Louis
on smooth muscles, and at Suny Medical Center in Brooklyn on the
relaxation of blood vessels. For more about Furchgott, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/furchgott-autobio.html.
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"Indeed,
I spent many long hours thinking about whether I should study chemistry
or open up my own drag racing shop out on Long Island. Well, chemistry
it was." Louis J. Ignarro, Les Prix Nobel, 1998.
A native New Yorker, Louis J. Ignarro was born to immigrant Italian
parents on May 31, 1941. He studied at Columbia University in New
York City and received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University
of Wisconsin. He performed his postdoctoral work at the Laboratory
of Chemical Pharmacology at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute, under Elwood Titus. As a scientist at Geigy Pharmaceuticals,
Ignarro worked on anti-inflammatory drugs. He returned to academia
at Tulane University in New Orleans and worked on the question of
NO as a signal molecule. He moved to the University of California,
Los Angeles School of Medicine where he continued to work on the
effects of NO. For more information about Ignarro, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/ignarro-autobio.html.
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"With
this background I knew that I wanted considerable education so I
wouldn't have to work as hard as my parents. Also, I knew at the
age of 12 that I was going to become a doctor." Ferid Murad, Les
Prix Nobel, 1998
Ferid Murad was born on September 14, 1936 in Whiting, Indiana,
the son of restaurant owners. He attended DePauw University in Greencastle,
Indiana, and did his M.D.-Ph.D. degree work at Western Reserve University
School of Medicine under Earl Sutherland on cyclic AMP. He was a
clinical associate at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
under Martha Vaughn, where he pursued his interest in hormone regulation.
At the University of Virginia, he continued this work; then at Stanford
University he began his work on NO. He joined the Abbot Laboratories
to work on drug discovery and then went to the University of Texas-Houston
to build a division of clinical pharmacology. He concluded that
he ended up working harder than his parents, but with more enjoyment.
For more information on Murad, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/murad-autobio.html.
Photo: ©
The Nobel Foundation
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