Robert F. Furchgott

Infobox Scientist
name = Robert Francis Furchgott
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caption = Robert Francis Furchgott
birth_date = June 4, 1916 (age 92)
birth_place = Charleston, South Carolina
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nationality = United States
ethnicity =
field = biochemistry
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prizes = Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998
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Robert Francis Furchgott (born June 4, 1916 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a Nobel Prize-winning American biochemist.

Furchgott graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1937 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received his Ph.D in biochemistry at Northwestern University in 1940. He was faculty member of Washington University School of Medicine from 1949 to 1956. From 1956 to 1988, he was professor of pharmacology at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center.

In 1978, Furchgott discovered a substance in endothelial cells that relaxes blood vessels, calling it endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). By 1986, he had worked out EDRF's nature and mechanism of action, and determined that EDRF was in fact nitric oxide (NO), an important compound in many aspects of cardiovascular physiology. This research was important in the creation of Viagra.

Aside from the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine he received in 1998, Furchgott has also received a Gairdner Foundation International Award for his groundbreaking discoveries (1991) and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1996), the latter with Ferid Murad.

As of 2006, Furchgott lives in Brooklyn and has three children. He continues to serve as a professor emeritus at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center.

References

*Citation
id = PMID:11071225
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11071225
last=Raju
first=T N
publication-date=2000 Jul 22
year=2000
title=The Nobel chronicles. 1998: Robert Francis Furchgott (b 1911), Louis J Ignarro (b 1941), and Ferid Murad (b 1936).
volume=356
issue=9226
periodical=Lancet
pages=346
*Citation
id = PMID:10065255
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10065255
last=Rabelink
first=A J
publication-date=1998 Dec 26
year=1998
title=Nobel prize in Medicine and Physiology 1998 for the discovery of the role of nitric oxide as a signalling molecule
volume=142
issue=52
periodical=Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde
pages=2828-30
*Citation
id = PMID:9893684
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9893684
last=Laufs
first=U
last2=Erdmann
first2=E
publication-date=1998 Dec 18
year=1998
title=Nitric oxide as a signal molecule in the cardiovascular system. Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1998
volume=123
issue=51-52
periodical=Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr.
pages=1562-5
*Citation
id = PMID:9889673
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9889673
last=Hansson
first=G K
last2=Jörnvall
first2=H
last3=Lindahl
first3=S G
publication-date=1998 Dec 21
year=1998
title=The Nobel Prize 1998 in physiology or medicine. Nitrogen oxide as a signal molecule in the cardiovascular system
volume=160
issue=52
periodical=Ugeskr. Laeg.
pages=7571-8
*Citation
id = PMID:9889670
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9889670
last=Nielsen
first=T T
last2=Sørensen
first2=K E
publication-date=1998 Dec 21
year=1998
title=Discovery of "endogenous nitroglycerin", NO, as cellular signal molecule
volume=160
issue=52
periodical=Ugeskr. Laeg.
pages=7567
*Citation
id = PMID:9831980
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9831980
last=Mitka
first=M
publication-date=1998 Nov 18
year=1998
title=1998 Nobel Prize winners are announced: three discoverers of nitric oxide activity.
volume=280
issue=19
periodical=JAMA
pages=1648
*Citation
id = PMID:9821753
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9821753
last=Hansson
first=G K
last2=Jörnvall
first2=H
last3=Lindahl
first3=S G
publication-date=1998 Oct 21
year=1998
title=1998 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Nitric oxide as a signal molecule in the cardiovascular system
volume=95
issue=43
periodical=Lakartidningen
pages=4703-8
*Citation
id = PMID:8827976
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8827976
last=Furchgott
first=R F
publication-date=1996 Oct 9
year=1996
title=The 1996 Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards. The discovery of endothelium-derived relaxing factor and its importance in the identification of nitric oxide.
volume=276
issue=14
periodical=JAMA
pages=1186-8

External links

* [http://www.downstate.edu/RFFS/ The Robert F. Furchgott Society]
* [http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1998/furchgott-autobio.html Furchgott's autobiography] (until 1998, at nobelprize.org)
* [http://www.downstate.edu/pharmacology/faculty/furchgott.html His laboratory's webpage]