Earlier this month, Case Western Reserve University hosted several Nobel Prize winners for The Standard Model at 50 Years symposium. Did you know there are 16 Nobel Prize winners who are affiliated with Case Western Reserve? In recognition of their contributions to their respective fields, we will highlight CWRU’s Nobel Prize winners throughout June.
Of all the subjects in which Case Western Reserve University Nobel Laureates have been honored, physiology or medicine is the most frequent. Seven individuals affiliated with Case Western Reserve University have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine throughout history. Last week, we detailed the accomplishments of John J. R. Macleod (1923), Frederick C. Robbins (1954), Earl W. Sutherland Jr. (1971) and George H. Hitchings (1988).
This week, we will highlight the most recent three winners affiliated with CWRU to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Alumnus Alfred G. Gilman (MED ’69; GRS ’69, pharmacology) won in 1994 for his work in the “discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells.” He shared the prize with Martin Rodbell, who had determined that there were three steps involved with signal transfer. Gilman went on to discover G proteins, which help in cell signaling and communications.
In 1998, another alumnus, Ferid Murad (MED ’65; GRS ’65, pharmacology), received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He received the prize jointly with researchers Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro “for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system.”
Paul C. Lauterbur earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Case Institute of Technology in 1951. He went on to share the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Peter Mansfield “for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging”—making the development of the technique possible.
Read more about CWRU’s first four Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine.