American pharmacologist who along with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine of the year 1998 for his discoveries about the formation and biological actions of nitric oxide (NO ·). He proposed the production of labile intermediates with powerful pharmacological action, S-nitrosothiols, prior to the release of · NO. It contributed to show that oxygen free radicals react with · NO, reducing their half-life and biological actions.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 2 Awards and honors
- 3 Positions you have held
- 4 Relationship with the American company Herbalife
- 5 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He studied Pharmacy at Columbia University between 1962 and 1966 , the latter year in which he began his studies in Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota . Between 1979 and 1985 he was a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans . Since 1985 he has been a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Los Angeles School of Medicine (UCLA). Ignarro participated in the search for the chemical nature of EDRF (endothelium-derived relaxing factor), carried out a brilliant series of analyzes and concluded, in 1986, along with and independently of Robert Furchgott, that EDRF was nitric oxide (NO). The problem was resolved and Furchgott’s endothelial factor was identified. Following the conference that Furchgott and Ignarro delivered in July 1996 , their findings sparked a flood of research activities in many different laboratories around the world. This was the first discovery that a gas can act as a molecular signal in the body.
Awards and honors
He has received, among others, the following awards:
- 1974 – Ten Golden Apple Awards (UCLA), Merck Research Award
- 1973 – 1976 – Edward G. Schlieder Foundation Award
- 1975 – 1980 – USPHS Research Career Development Award
- 1978 – Lilly Research Award
- 1994 – Roussel Award
- 1995 – CIBA Award for research in hypertension
- 1998 – American Heart Association Award
- 1999 – Award from the United States Academy of Sciences
- 1998 – Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Positions you have held
- He has been a professor at Tulane University and Columbia.
- He is director of the Department of Medical and Molecular Pharmacology and Professor of Pharmacology at the UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles ).
- He is the founder and president of the Nitric Oxide Society.
- He has the highest academic category in the area of Pharmacology (Jerome J. Belzer, MD, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology).
- He was named Doctor honoris causa by the University of Bologna .
Relationship with the American company Herbalife
In 1998, Ignarro invented Niteworks, a dietary supplement that boosts nitric oxide production. [1] That same year, he signed an agreement with Herbalife (an American multilevel sales company) for it to sell his product and pay him royalties. [2] Two years later (2000), Herbalife appointed Ignarro president of its “Scientific Advisory Council.” In the first 12 months (between June 2003 and September 2004), Ignarro earned more than one million US dollars , apart from what he earned from the percentage on the sale of each product. [3]
Three years later, Ignarro promoted the ingredients of Niteworks in a scientific article that he managed to publish (on June 8, 2004) in the prestigious scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , although he did not disclose his financial interest in publishing the trial. [4] When Ignarro’s financial relationship with Herbalife was revealed, the magazine added a correction to the article, noting that Ignarro, unethically, had failed to disclose his “conflict of interest.” [5]
