nobel laureates related to pharmacology

1. History and some wonder
discoveries in
Pharmacology
Dr. Rupendra Kumar Bharti
Department of
Pharmacology
IGMC, Shimla

2. A Brief History Of Pharmacology
• Pharmacology is the science of drugs (Greek pharmakos, medicine
or drug; and logos, study).
• It is the study of substances that interact with living systems through
chemical processes, especially through binding to regulatory
molecules and activating or inhibiting normal body processes.
• History of Pharmacology, Knowledge of drugs and their use in
disease is as old as history of mankind
• But as a science Pharmacology is quite a young one
• The birth date of pharmacology is not as clear-cut

3. • Primitive men gathered the knowledge of healing and
medicine by observing the nature, noticing animals while ill
and by personal experiences after consuming certain herbs
and berries as remedies
• Hippocrates (460B.C.-377B.C.) “The Father of Medicine”
was the first to attempt to separate the practice of
medicine from religion and superstition, developed his
pledge of proper conduct for doctors
• “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my
ability and judgment, but never with the view to injury and
wrong doing…Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter
to help the sick”

4. • Ebers papyrus describes more than 700 drugs in extensive
pharmacopeia of that civilization. Included in this are: beer,
turpentine, berries, poppy, lead, salt and crushed precious
stones etc.(Egyptian remedies)
• Dhanvantari : an early Indian medical practitioner and one of the
world’s first surgeons, regarded as the source of Ayurveda. He
perfected many herbal based cures and natural remedies and
was credited with the discovery of the antiseptic properties of
turmeric and the preservative properties of salt which he
incorporated in his cures.
• Susruta Ancient Hindu Medical Text Describes 760 herbs
• Charka Samhita describes more thnn 65O drugs of animal,
plant and mineral origins are used.
• Chinese remedies

5. • Paracelsus (1493-1541) : Pioneered the use of chemicals and
minerals (zinc) in medicine. vigorously opposed poly pharmacy or
the prescription of multiple ingredients in a single medicine.
• Willow bark was used to treat fever and pains.
• Extract of foxglove plant, used to treat dropsy (congestive heart
failure) in 1785. Contains digitoxin and digoxin; today called
digitalis
• William Withering ( 1741-1799) discovered digitalis.
• Synthetic organic chemistry was born in 1828, when Friedrich
Wohler synthesized urea from inorganic substances and thus
demolished the vital force theory.

6. Some Historical landmarks
• Morphine : Friedrich Serturner (1805)
• Atropine : Grieger & Hessie (1833)
• Histamine : Vogt (1907)
• Sulfanilamide : P. Gleno (1908)
• Oxytocin : Abel (1919)
• Insulin: Banting & Best (1922)
• Penicillins : A. Flemming (1928)
• Sulfonamides : Domagk (1932)
• Cortisone: Edward C.Kendall
• Streptomycin : Waksman (1944)
• Chloramphenicol : Bartz (1948)
• Tetracycline: Duggar (1948)
• Lithium : Cade (1950)

7. 40 - 90 AD
Pedanius Dioscorides
A Greek physician
• He personally researched each plant and its
uses. About 65 AD, he wrote De Meteria media
"Regarding Medical Matters",on the "preparation,
properties, and testing of drugs."
• Five volume book on the uses of over 1,000
plants and minerals.
• For nearly 1500 years, De Materia Medica was
the supreme authority on medicine and
pharmacology in western civilization.

8. FRANÇOIS MAGENDIE
• A French physiologist, considered a pioneer of
experimental physiology.
• He is known for describing the foramen of Magendie.
• There is also a Magendie sign, a downward and inward
rotation of the eye due to a lesion in the cerebellum.
• Studied the action of nux vomica (a strychnine-containing
plant drug) on dogs, and showed that the spinal cord was
the site of its convulsant action.
• His work was presented to the Paris Academy in 1809.
(1783 – 1855)

9. Contribution…..
• Established the idea of experimental physiology (an idea further
popularised by Claude Bernard)
• He described in detail the effects of strychnine injections on
animal subjects and also proved that the poison reached the
animal's spinal cord by the blood stream and not by the
lymphatic system (as was then commonly believed).
• Because of such experiments, Magendie was able to
introduce into French medicine a variety of new drugs,
including morphine, codeine, quinine and strychnine.

10. Claude Bernard
• A French Physiologist
• Further expanded work of Francois Megendie.
• In 1842, Claude Bernard discovered that the arrow
poison curare acts at the neuromuscular junction to
interrupt the stimulation of muscle by nerve impulses.
• Also k/a Father of Modern Experimental Medicine.
• Bernard's experiments changed medicine
(1813-1878)

11. Contributions….
• The discovery of the role of the pancreatic secretion in the digestion of
fats (1848).
• The discovery of a new function of the liver--the "internal secretion" of
glucose into the blood (1848).
• The production of sugar by washed excised liver (1855) and the isolation
of glycogen (1857).
• The demonstration that curare specifically blocks motor nerve endings
(1856).
• He also established the existence of Vasomotor system and
observed Vasodilatation & Vasoconstriction

12. Rudolf Buchheim
• Pharmacology was held to have emerged as a
separate science only when the first university
chair was established.
• This occurred in 1847, when Rudolf Buchheim (a
German pharmacologist) , was appointed
professor of pharmacology at the University of
Dorpat in Estonia .
• Today at the University of Giessen is the Rudolf
Buchheim Institute for Pharmacology.
(1820 –1879)

13. CONTRIBUTION
• Buchheim built the world’s 1st pharmacology laboratory
at his own expense in the basement of his home.
• Buchheim is remembered for his pioneer work in
experimental pharmacology.
• He introduced the bioassay to pharmacology,

14. Oswald Schmiedeberg
• Generally recognized as the founder of modern
pharmacology.
• Schmiedeberg obtained his medical doctorate in 1866 with a
thesis on the measurement of chloroform in blood .
• In 1872, he became professor of pharmacology at the
University of Strassburg.
• In 1878, he published a classic text, Outline of
Pharmacology
• In 1885, he introduced urethane (ethyl carbamate) as hypnotic.
(1838–1921)

15. • In his 46 years at Strasburg, Schmiedeberg trained most
of the men who became professors at other German
universities and in several foreign countries.
• He was largely responsible for the preeminence of the
German pharmaceutical industry up to World War II.
• In the United States, the first chair in pharmacology was
established at the University of Michigan in 1890 under
John Jacob Abel, an American who had trained under
Schmiedeberg.
CONTRIBUTION…

16. John Jacob Abel
• An American Pharmacologist, Ph.D from the university of
Michigan and trained under Schmiedeberg.
• In the United States, the first chair in pharmacology was
established at the University of Michigan in 1890 under John
Jacob Abel.
• In 1893, Abel went to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,
where he had a long and brilliant career.
• Also k/a FATHER OF AMERICAN PHARMACOLOGY
1857- 1938

17. Contributions….
• Gave the name Pharmacology as a subject (earlier k/a Materia
Medica).
• He was second to isolate epinephrine (1897–1898) from adrenal
gland extracts (first was Napoleon Cybulski in 1895)
• Isolated amino acids from the blood (1914).
• Isolation of histamine from pituitary extract (1919).
• Preparation of pure crystalline insulin (1926).
• His student Reid Hunt discovered acetylcholine in adrenal
extracts in 1906.

18. Friedrich Serturner
• Friedrich Serturner, the German pharmacist who isolated
the first alkaloid from opium in 1805, administered a very
large dose (100 mg) to himself and three friends.
• All experienced the symptoms of severe opium poisoning
for several days. The alkaloid was named morphine, for
Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep.
• Although humans are no longer used as laboratory
animals, they are essential in clinical pharmacology
(19 June 1783 – 20 February 1841)

19. OTTO LOEWI
• A German Pharmacologist, brilliantly obtained his
doctor’s degree with a thesis about “techniques of
isolations of frog’s heart”.
• 1909 He was appointed to the Chair of Pharmacology
in Graz.
• 1921 He proved, the chemical transmission of the
nerve impulses & in 1936 He received the Nobel price,
with Henri Dale.
1873 - 1961

20. Contributions….
• He designed his most famous
experiment, which provided the first
evidence for the existence of chemical
transmission in a synapse.
• The experiment was very simple and
became a prototype for all
investigations of chemical factors in
the nervous system.

21. SIR HENRY HALLET DALE
• An English Pharmacologist
• Received his M.D. from Cambridge in 1909.
• Dale became the Director of Dept of Biochemistry
and Pharmacology at the National Institute for
Medical Research in London in 1914.
• Also served as President of the Royal Society from
1940 to 1945
1875 - 1968

22. Contributions….
• Distinguished Muscarinic &Nicotinic receptors in 1914
• First identified acetylcholine in 1914 as a possible neuro -
transmitter, Loewi showed its importance in the nervous
system. (shared the 1936 Nobel Prize for Physiology or
Medicine.)
• Dale's principle ( Dale's Law). This principle states that each
neuron releases only one type of neurotransmitter.
• Dale’s Vasomotor Reversal Phenomenon : Only fall in BP
occurs when an alpha blocker is given before injecting
adrenaline. He demonstrated this in cat & used Ergot
alkaloids as alpha blocker

23. Colonel Ram Nath Chopra
• k/a FATHER OF INDIAN PHARMACOLOGY
• Obtained MD degree from Cambridge University in 1908
• In 1921 : Appointed as the first professor of pharmacology in
newly established Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and
parallely headed the Department of pharmacology at he
Calcutta medical college
• From 1941 to 1957: he was Director of the Drug Research Lab
at Srinagar
1882-1973

24. Contributions….
• He 1st introduced and done systematic study of
Rauwolfia serpentina
• Had a major contribution in establishing the 1st
National Drug Research Institute of India, Lucknow (
presently known as Central Drug Research Institute,
CDRI)
• He pioneered research on herbal drugs in India

25. Paul Ehrlich
(1854-1915)
• German scientist in the fields of hematology, immunology, and
chemotherapy
• He is noted for curing syphilis and for his research in autoimmunity
• He coined the term chemotherapy and popularized the concept of
a magic bullet.
• Also coined the term Receptor (earlier called as receptive substance by
Langley)
• Ehrlich skillfully transformed diphtheria antitoxin along with Emil Adolf
von Behring, into an effective preparation, his first world renown
achievement, However, von Behring cheated Ehrlich out of both
recognition and financial reward. Only von Behring received the first
Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1901,

26. Contributions….
• In 1906 he discovered the structural formula of atoxyl, a chemical
compound which had been shown to be able to treat sleeping
sickness
• In1908, Ehrlich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine
• In 1909 he and his student Sahachiro
Hata developed Salvarsan, a treatment effective against syphilis.
• Salvarsan became the most widely prescribed drug in the world,
most effective drug for treating syphilis until penicillin became
available in the 1940s.
• Known as FATHER OF CHEMOTHERAPY

27. Alexander Fleming
(1881-1955)
• Scottish biologist and pharmacologist.
• His best-known discoveries are the discovery of
the enzyme lysozyme in 1923.
• Antibiotic penicillin from the mould Penicillium notatum in
1928 which was a discovery by chance. On 3 September
1928, Fleming returned to his lab. after vacation. Before
leaving, he had stacked all his cultures of staphylococci on
a bench in a corner of his laboratory.

28. • On returning, Fleming noticed that one culture was
contaminated with a fungus, and that the colonies
of staphylococci that had immediately surrounded it
had been destroyed, whereas other colonies
farther away were normal
• He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst
Chain who purified penicillin

29. Sir Frederick Banting & Charles
Best
• Sir Frederick Grant Banting, (1891 –1941) was
a Canadian medical scientist & doctor.
• Charles Best February (1899 – 1978) was his
assistant.
• Known for the discovery of the insulin—one of the
most significant advances in medicine, enabling an
effective treatment for diabetes.
• In 1923, the Nobel Banting and J.J.R. Macleod
won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery
of insulin, & Nobel prize committee ignored Best.
This incensed Banting, who voluntarily shared half
of his award money with Best.

30. Gerhard Domagk
(1895-1964)
• A German pathologist and bacteriologist.
• Done extensive work on infections & antibiotics
• Credited with the discovery of Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-
730) – the first commercially available antibiotic (marketed
under the brand name Prontosil)
• He found the sulfonamide Prontosil to be effective against
streptococcus, and treated his own daughter with it, saving her
the amputation of an arm.
• In 1939, Domagk received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine for this discovery, the first drug effective
against bacterial infections.

31. Daniel Bovet
• Swiss born Italian pharmacologist.
• In the early 1930’s Bovet and his coworkers conducted a series
of experiments on Prontosil & they concluded that Prontosil
derived its therapeutic powers due to the presence of
sulphanilamide.
• In 1937 Bovet and his research student Anne Marie Staub
succeeded in synthesizing the first antihistaminic
Thymoxidiethylamine.
• Thymoxidiethylamine. was too toxic to be used so he continued
with hundreds of experiments to find a more human body friendly
antihistamine.
1907 - 1992

32. Contricution….
• After years of research he succeeded in discovering
Pyrilamine (mepyramine) a very important histamine.
• In 1947 he discovered gallamine when he was looking for a
synthetic substitute for curare.
• Isolated succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant now used in
conjunction with anaesthesia during certain surgical
procedures.
• In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
medicine for his discoveries.

33. Louis Lasagna
Father of Clinical Pharmacology
• Famous American Clinical Pharmacologist.
• Medical degree from Columbia University in 1947.
• Lasagna joined the faculty of Johns HopkinsUniversity in 1954, where he
established the first ever clinical pharmacology department.
• In 1964, Lasagna revised the Hippocratic Oath.
• Conceptualise controlled clinical trials and the placebo effect.
• Lasagna's work led to the improvement of controlled clinical trials to test drug
effectiveness, and improved the regulation of drugs for effectiveness and safety.
• Lasagna's Law : The incidence of patient availability sharply decreases when a
clinical trial begins and returns to its original level as soon as the trial is
completed.
1923-2003

34. Sir James Black
• A Scottish Pharmacologist.
• Studied Medicine at Univ. of St. Andrew.
• In 1950, he joined the University of Glasgow
• He was interested in the effect of adrenaline on the human
heart.
• Joined ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) and
Pharmaceuticals in 1958.
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for his
work.
1924- 2010

35. Contribution….
• He established the Physiology Department at
University of Glasgow.
• He developed Propranolol while working for ICI , which
later became the world's best-selling drug.
• Black developed his second major drug, cimetidine in
1975 and soon outsold propranolol to become the
world's 1st billion dollar drug.

36. Louis J. Ignarro, Robert Furchgott and
Ferid Murad
• Louis J. Ignarro (born May 31, 1941) is an Italian
American pharmacologist
• Robert Francis Furchgott ( 1916 – 2009) was
an American biochemist.
• Ferid Murad (born September 14, 1936) is
an Albanian-
American physician and pharmacologist
• Their main contribution is the Discoveries
concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in
the cardiovascular system
• Co-winners of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine.

37. Other Scientists & Their Contributions
• Thomas Renton Elliott: Elaboration of the Concept of Chemical
Neurotransmission
• John Langley (1878) : Receptor concept (called it Receptive substance
•
• William Henry Howell & Jay McLean (1916) : Discovered Heparin from
Canine Liver
• Raymond Ahlquist (1948) : Existence of two types of adrenergic
receptors i.e. Alpha & Beta Receptors.
•
• G.Brotzu (1948) : discovered Cephalosporins
• Selman Waksman : discovered streptomycin: the first antibiotic
effective against tuberculosis - Nobel Prize (1952)

38. cont…
• Ulf von Euler, Julius Axelrod, and Sir Bernard Katz: the
processes involved with the biosynthesis, release,
actions,and inactivation of neurotransmitters (Nobel Prize
1970)
• Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. : He discovered cAMP as 2nd
messenger concerning the mechanisms of the action of
hormones," especially epinephrine ( Nobel Prize in in 1971)
• Sir John Robert Vane: worked on aspirin & discovered
that it inhibits prostaglandin biosynthesis ( Nobel Prize
1982)
• Martin Rodbell & Alfred G. Gilman: Known for their
discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in
signal transduction in cells (Nobel Prize 1994)

39. Some Scientists in History of Anaesthetics
• Nitrous oxide : Synthesized by Priestley in 1774, 1st clinically used by
Humphery Davy who used it on himself for toothache and called it as
Laughing gas
• Horace Wells : used N2O for tooth extraction & patient cried in pain. He
became very frustrated and chloroform addict n committed suicide by cutting
his femoral artery.
• Ether: prepared by Valeus Cordus and was k/a ‘sweet oil of vitroil’.First public
demonstration was given by W.T.G Morton on 16th October 1846 (World
Anaesthesia Day)
• Chloroform: first use was done by Simpson but John Snow popularised it by
using it successfully in 4,000 patients (also used on Queen Victoria for birth
of her 8th child)
• Cocaine was 1st used by Carl koller for anaesthetising cornea

40. Pioneers of Pharmacology
• Hippocrates: Father of Modern Medicine
• Claude Bernard: Father of Modern Experimental Pharmacology
• Oswald Schmiedberg: Father of Modern Pharmacology
• Paul Ehrlich: Father of Modern Chemotherapy
• John Jacob Abel: Father of American Pharmacology
• Ram Nath Chopra: Father of Indian Pharmacology
• Louis Lasagna: Father of Clinical Pharmacology

41. REFERENCES
• Goodman and Gilman’s :The Pharmacological Basis of
Therapeutics : 12th edition
• Clinical Pharmacology : Bennett and Brown 10th
edition
• Basic and clinical pharmacology : Katzung,Masters
and Trevor: 11th edition
• A Brief History of Great Discoveries in Pharmacology.
Rubin PR. Pharmacol Rev 2007; 59: 289–359.
• "All Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine".
nobelprize.org.

42. "I have been trying to point out that in our lives chance may
have an astonishing influence and, if I may offer advice to
the young laboratory worker, it would be this - never to
neglect an extraordinary appearance or happening.”
Alexander Fleming
Thank you……

43. Some Pharmacologists in
HistoryWilliam Withering, 1741-1799 (digitalis)
Claude Bernard 1813-1878 (d-tubo curare)
Friedrich Sertürner 1783--1841 (morphine)
Rudolf Buchheim 1820-1879 (1st Pharmacology
Laboratory, University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia)
Oswald Schmiedeberg 1838-1921 (Strassburg, now Strasbourg, trained
many pharmacologists)
John Langley 1852--1926 (Receptor concept)
Paul Ehrlich 1854-1915 (Receptor concept)
Otto Loewi, Henry Dale (Neurotransmission)