NIH Eminent Scientist Profiles

Erminio Costa, Ph.D., a discoverer of how serotonin works demonstrated the importance of neurotransmitter turnover rates in understanding neuronal function. He also determined that anti-anxiety drugs act by facilitating inhibitory brain mechanisms and that receptors function as supramolecular entities where transmitters and co-transmitters act to assure synaptic plasticity. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1982.

The Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum has gathered the following growing list of resources concerning Dr. Costa:

NIH Publications
• Announcement of appointment to National Academy of Sciences in NIH Record, 1982: https://nihrecord.nih.gov/PDF_Archive/1982%20PDFs/19820511.pdf

Journal Publications
• Tribute by Floyd Bloom in Neuropharmacology, 2011: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390810002480
• Tribute by Francesco Della Valle in Pharmacological Research, 2011: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043661811001514
• Tribute by Dennis Grayson and Alessandro Guidotti in Nature, 2010: https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2009231
• Tribute by Norton H. Neff and Maria Hadjiconstantinou in Pharmacological Research, 2011: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043661811001502
• Tribute by G. C. Salmoiraghi and Abel Lajtha in Neurochemical Research, 1990: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00972198

Non-journal Publications
• Obituary in Washington Post, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/21/AR2009122103375.html