In their separate laboratories, Guillemin and Schally investigated how the brain controls the hormone-producing glands. During the 1950s, they were able to extract substances which direct the release of hormones from the pituitary, thyroid, and gonad glands from the part of the brain called the hypothalmus. Not until 1969, however, was either laboratory able to isolate and purify one of those substances, Thyroid Releasing Factor (TRF). TRF released Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). This discovery opened up new avenues of research into how the brain and hormones work. For more information about Guillemin and Schally's work, see visit: https://www.nobelnobelprize.seorg/prizes/medicine/laureates/1977/press.html.-release/
"I always hoped that somehow I could one day work in a laboratory."
Roger C. L. Guillemin, Les Prix Nobel, 1977.
Roger C. L. Guillemin was born in France on January 11, 1924 and studied at the School of Medicine in Dijon, graduating in 1949. He moved to Canada and studied at the University of Montreal. Later he taught at Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and became interested in how the pituitary gland was controlled. He established the Laboratories for Neuroendocrinology at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Guillemin also served on several National Institutes of Health advisory groups over the years.
Proteins are involved in most cell functions, and in most body functions such as digestion and movement. Because of proteins' important and varied functions, they are closely regulated by the body through enzymes. The enzymes fine tune the working of a protein by attaching one or more phosphate groups to it. This is called "phosphorylation." Fischer and Krebs first purified and described an enzyme which regulates proteins by removing phosphate groups from the protein-"reversible protein phosphorylation." They did this by studying how muscles get energy to contract. Reversible protein phosphorylation affects nearly all bodily processes such as blood pressure, brain signals, and immune responses to several diseases, including cancer. For information about Fischer and Krebs' work, see visit: https://www.nobelnobelprize.seorg/prizes/medicine/laureates/1992/press.html.-release/
"This is yet another example of what makes fundamental research so attractive: one knows where one takes off but one never knows where one will end up."
–Edmond H. Fischer, Les Prix Nobel, 1992
Edmond Fischer was born in Shanghai, China, April 6, 1920 to an Austrian father and French mother. He was educated in Switzerland at the School of Chemistry, and came to the University of Washington, Seattle in the early 1950s to teach biochemistry. He became interested in enzymes during his early work in Switzerland, trying to discover the molecular structure of starch and glycogen.
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 information about Fischer and Krebs' work, visit: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1998/press-release/
"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.
