World

Americans Win Nobel for Medicine

October 12, 1998 / 7:58 AM EDT / AP

Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad of the United States won the Nobel Medicine Prize today for discoveries that shed light on the cardiovascular system.

They discovered how nitric oxide acts as a signal molecule for the body's blood vessels, a breakthrough with applications ranging from hardening of the arteries to impotence.

Understanding how nitric oxide transmits the signals has sparked research on a wide range of new drugs, including those that can be used in the treatment of heart problems, atherosclerosis, shock and impotence.

Louis J. Ignarro

Because of their work, "we know today that nitric oxide acts as a signal molecule in the nervous system, as a weapon against infections and as a regulator of blood pressure," said the citation from the Karolinska lnstitute.

Furchgott is a pharmacologist at the State University of New York in Brooklyn, Ignarro is at University of California-Los Angeles and Murad is at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.

The citation said "it was a sensation that the simple, common air pollutant (nitric oxide), which is formed when nitrogen burns ... could exert important functions in the organism."

"It's great news," said Dr. Gerald Levey, dean of the UCLA School of Medicine. "We were hoping he (Ignarro) would win it. We thought he had a strong chance to win. It's well deserved."

The $978,000 prize is divided equally among the three.

Robert F. Furchgott

Last year, the prize went to Stanley B. Prusiner of the University of California at San Francisco for his discovery of prions, the rogue proteins identified as causing Mad Cow Disease.

Winners generally aren't known outside the medical community, although the list of laureates contains a few familiar names including Ivan Pavlov, tuberculosis pioneer Robert Koch, and DNA researchers Francis Crick and James Watson.

Generally, they are researchers who have made discoveries that sound small on paper but carry large consequences.

Among other well-known names to receive the prize is David Baltimore, although he shared the prize in 1975, long before becoming one of the world's most visible AIDS researchers.

Alan Cormack of the United States and Sir Godfrey Hounsfield may not be familiar names, but what they won the prize for in 1979 is a term known by most patients: computer-assisted tomography or CAT scan.

The medicine prize was the second of the six Nobels to be announced this year.

Last week, the literature prize went to Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago.

The physics ad chemistry prizes will be announced Tuesday, the economics prize on Wednesday and the peace prize on Friday. All the announcements are in Stockholm, except for the peace prize, which is given in Oslo, Norway.

The prizes are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the industrialist and inventor of dynamite whose will established the prizes.

By JIM HEINTZ