Katharine Montagu

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Katharine Montagu
Died(2023-06-21)21 June 2023
Known for Dopamine
Scientific career
Institutions Runwell Hospital

Katharine Anne Montagu (21 February 1925 - 21 June 2023) was the first researcher to identify dopamine in human brains. Working in Hans Weil-Malherbe's laboratory at the Runwell Hospital outside London [1] the presence of dopamine was identified by paper chromatography in the brain of several species, including a human brain. [2] Her research was published in August 1957, [3] followed and confirmed by Hans Weil-Malherbe in November 1957. [2]

Nobel Prize-rewarded Arvid Carlsson is often claimed to be the first researcher to identify dopamine in human brain, however his research was published in November 1957, [4] along with colleagues Margit Linsqvist and Tor Magnusson.

Early Life

Katharine Anne Montagu, known as Kath, was born at Territet in Switzerland, the only daughter of Captain Henry Bernard Montagu RN Retd and his American wife Rosamond née Fay. [5] Initially attending St George’s International School in Clarens, she moved to St Hilda’s School in Bushey in 1936 when the family returned to England. She was subsequently a pupil at Wycombe Abbey School where she took her school certificate in the summer of 1940.

With concerns about her safety during the war, Kath was sent to America to stay with her American relatives in Boston, leaving Glasgow on the SS Cameronia on 26 July 1940. [6]   She spent the next year at St Mary’s School in Littleton, New Hampshire, before being sent to the Concord Academy in Boston. Completing her studies in 1943, and now eighteen years old, she returned to England. In 1944, she went to St Andrew’s University to read chemistry but left after the first year, becoming an external student at the University of London where she passed the Intermediate Examination in Science on 22 October 1947.

References

  1. ↑ Björklund, Anders; Dunnett, Stephen B. (May 2007). "Fifty years of dopamine research". Trends in Neurosciences. 30 (5): 185–187. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2007.03.004 . PMID   17397938.
  2. 1 2 Hornykiewicz, O. (2006). "The discovery of dopamine deficiency in the parkinsonian brain". Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. pp. 9–15. doi:10.1007/978-3-211-45295-0_3. ISBN   978-3-211-28927-3. PMID   17017502.{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  3. ↑ Montagu, K. A. (August 1957). "Catechol Compounds in Rat Tissues and in Brains of Different Animals". Nature. 180 (4579): 244–245. Bibcode:1957Natur.180..244M. doi:10.1038/180244a0. PMID   13451690.
  4. ↑ Carlsson, Arvid; Lindqvist, Margit; Magnusson, Tor (November 1957). "3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine and 5-Hydroxytryptophan as Reserpine Antagonists". Nature. 180 (4596): 1200. Bibcode:1957Natur.180.1200C. doi: 10.1038/1801200a0 . PMID   13483658.
  5. ↑ Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (105th, 2nd Impression ed.). 1976. p. 1741.
  6. ↑ National Archives: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890 - 1960.


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