Salvador Moncada

Last updated

Sir

Salvador Moncada

Dr Salvador Moncada.jpg
Born (1944-12-03) 3 December 1944 (age 79)
Other namesSalvador Enrique Moncada Seidner
Alma mater
Known for Prostacyclin
Spouses
  • Dorys Lemus
(m. 1998)
Children4
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Pharmacology
Institutions
Website manchester.ac.uk/research/salvador.moncada

Sir Salvador Enrique Moncada Seidner, FRS, FRCP, FMedSci (born 3 December 1944) is a Honduran pharmacologist and professor. He is currently Research Domain Director for Cancer at the University of Manchester. [3]

Contents

In the past, he was the Research Director of the Wellcome Research Laboratories from 1986 to 1995 and, until recently, the Director of the UCL Wolfson Institute, which he established at University College London in 1996. His research interests include inflammation and vascular biology and he is currently working on the regulation of cell proliferation. He gained fame for his discoveries related to nitric oxide function and metabolism, and his exclusion from the 1996 Lasker Award and the 1998 Nobel Prize in medicine. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Sir Salvador was nominated by Xiomara Castro, the President of Honduras, to serve as their first Ambassador to China following the Honduran government's recognition of the People's Republic of China in March 2023. The Embassy in Beijing is due to be opened when President Castro visits in June 2023. [11]

Early life and education

Moncada was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to Salvador Moncada and Jenny Seidner on 3 December 1944, and moved to El Salvador in 1948. He studied medicine at the Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de El Salvador from 1962 to 1970. In 1971 he went to London to work on a PhD with John Vane in the Department of Pharmacology in the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons. After a short period of research in the National Autonomous University of Honduras he moved to the Wellcome Research Laboratories (Beckenham, Kent), where he became director of research in 1986. In 1996 he moved to University College London, where he set up the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research in the Cruciform Building, which he directed until 2012.

Research

His scientific career began at the Royal College of Surgeons, where he collaborated in the discovery that aspirin-like drugs inhibit prostaglandin biosynthesis. This finding elucidated the mechanism by which these drugs act as analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory agents and also explained the mechanism by which they cause gastric damage. In 1975, at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, he led the team that discovered the enzyme thromboxane synthase and the vasodilator prostacyclin. This work contributed to the understanding of how low doses of aspirin prevent cardiovascular episodes such as myocardial infarction and stroke. As director of research at the Wellcome Research Laboratories he presided over the discovery and development of lamotrigine (an anti-epileptic compound), atovaquone (an anti-malarial) and zomig (for treatment of migraine headaches), and initiated the work that resulted in the development of lapatinib for the treatment of breast cancer. He was also responsible for the identification of nitric oxide as a biological mediator and the elucidation of the metabolic pathway leading to its synthesis. A great deal of the early work on the biological significance of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system came from his laboratory, as well as some fundamental information about the role of nitric oxide in the peripheral and central nervous systems and in cancer. His later work has focused on the areas of mitochondrial biology and cell metabolism. Most recently, his work has led to the finding of the molecular mechanism that coordinates cell proliferation with the provision of metabolic substrates required for this process.

Publications

Moncada is the author of more than 500 peer-reviewed papers and highly cited reviews, including

Other interests

Moncada is interested in medical education and in the development of science and technology in Latin America. He has been a consultant of the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO, the regional office of the WHO) and in recent years he founded Honduras Global – an international network of experts involved in supporting the development of Honduras.

Awards and honours

Moncada is an elected member of a number of international scientific societies. Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1994); Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London (1994), and Honorary Fellow of University College, London (1999). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1988. [12]

He has received honorary degrees from more than twenty universities, including Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City (1995); Degree of Doctor "Honoris Causa" of the University Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris, France (1997) and Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (2000).

His prizes and distinguished lectures include: The VIII Gaddum Memorial Lecture, British Pharmacological Society (1980); The Prince of Asturias Award (1990); [13] The Ulf von Euler Memorial Lecture, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (1991); The Paul Dudley White Lecture, American Heart Association, Anaheim, California, USA (1991); The Royal Medal of the Royal Society, UK (1994); The Gregory Pincus Memorial Lecture, the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts, USA (1996); The Louis and Artur Lucian Award (jointly with Prof. R. Furchgott), McGill University, Montreal, Canada (1997); The Bayliss-Starling Prize Lecture to the Physiological Society, UK (2000); The Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK (2000); Le Grand Prix Annuel Lefoulon-Delalande, from the Institut de France, Paris (2002); the Croonian Lecture at the Royal Society, London, UK (2005), the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine from the University of Debrecen, Hungary (2011) [14] and The Dohme Lecture, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore (2010).

In January 2010 he was created a Knight Bachelor for Services to Science. In 2013 he was awarded the Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine (Ernst Jung Prize).

Personal life

He was married to Dorys Lemus, a biochemistry teacher at the Medical School in El Salvador. The marriage resulted in two children, Claudia Regina (born 1966 – a G.P. who lives in London) and Salvador Ernesto (1972–1982). On 5 April 1998, in London, he married Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium. They have two children, Alexandra Leopoldine (born in London on 4 August 1998) and Leopoldo Daniel (born in London on 21 May 2001), and two grandchildren.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengt I. Samuelsson</span> Swedish biochemist

Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson is a Swedish biochemist. He shared with Sune K. Bergström and John R. Vane the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related substances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Vane</span> British scientist

Sir John Robert Vane was a British pharmacologist who was instrumental in the understanding of how aspirin produces pain-relief and anti-inflammatory effects and his work led to new treatments for heart and blood vessel disease and introduction of ACE inhibitors. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 along with Sune Bergström and Bengt Samuelsson for "their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostacyclin</span> Chemical compound

Prostacyclin (also called prostaglandin I2 or PGI2) is a prostaglandin member of the eicosanoid family of lipid molecules. It inhibits platelet activation and is also an effective vasodilator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gurdon</span> English developmental biologist (born 1933)

Sir John Bertrand Gurdon is a British developmental biologist, best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation and cloning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Bodmer</span> German-born British human geneticist

Sir Walter Fred Bodmer is a German-born British human geneticist.

Sérgio Henrique Ferreira was a Brazilian physician and pharmacologist noted for the discovery of the bradykinin potentiating factor, which led to new and widely used anti-hypertension drugs — the ACE inhibitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Ignarro</span> American pharmacologist

Louis Joseph Ignarro is an American pharmacologist. For demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide, he was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert F. Furchgott and Ferid Murad.

Sir Roy Malcolm Anderson is a leading international authority on the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases. He is the author, with Robert May, of the most highly cited book in this field, entitled Infectious Diseases of Humans: Dynamics and Control. His early work was on the population ecology of infectious agents before focusing on the epidemiology and control of human infections. His published research includes studies of the major viral, bacterial and parasitic infections of humans, wildlife and livestock. This has included major studies on HIV, SARS, foot and mouth disease, bovine tuberculosis, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), influenza A, antibiotic resistant bacteria, the neglected tropical diseases and most recently COVID-19. Anderson is the author of over 650 peer-reviewed scientific articles with an h-index of 125.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treprostinil</span> Chemical compound

Treprostinil, sold under the brand names Remodulin for infusion, Orenitram for oral, and Tyvaso for inhalation, is a vasodilator that is used for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Treprostinil is a synthetic analog of prostacyclin (PGI2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclooxygenase-1</span>

Cyclooxygenase 1 (COX-1), also known as prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 1, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the PTGS1 gene. In humans it is one of two cyclooxygenases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gil McVean</span> British statistical geneticist (born 1973)

Gilean Alistair Tristram McVean is a professor of statistical genetics at the University of Oxford, fellow of Linacre College, Oxford and co-founder and director of Genomics plc. He also co-chaired the 1000 Genomes Project analysis group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan Bradley</span> British geneticist

Allan Bradley FRS is a British geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Walport</span> English medical scientist and immunologist

Sir Mark Jeremy Walport is an English medical scientist and was the Government Chief Scientific Adviser in the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2017 and Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from 2017 to 2020. In 2023 he became the Foreign Secretary of The Royal Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen O'Rahilly</span> Irish-British physician and scientist

Sir Stephen Patrick O'Rahilly is an Irish-British physician and scientist known for his research into the molecular pathogenesis of human obesity, insulin resistance and related metabolic and endocrine disorders.

Joseph Gavin Collier is a British retired clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George's Hospital and Medical School in London, whose early research included establishing the effect of aspirin on human prostaglandins and looking at the role of nitric oxide and angiotensin converting enzyme in controlling blood vessel tone and blood pressure. Later, in his national policy work, he helped change the way drugs are priced and bought by the NHS, and ensured that members of governmental advisory committees published their conflicts of interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Vallance</span> British medical doctor

Sir Patrick John Thompson Vallance is a British physician, scientist, and clinical pharmacologist who has worked in both academia and industry. He served as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2023. On stepping down, he became chair of the Natural History Museum in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Stamler</span> English-American physician and biochemist

Jonathan Solomon Stamler is an English-born American physician and scientist. He is known for his discovery of protein S-nitrosylation, the addition of a nitric oxide (NO) group to cysteine residues in proteins, as a ubiquitous cellular signal to regulate enzymatic activity and other key protein functions in bacteria, plants and animals, and particularly in transporting NO on cysteines in hemoglobin as the third gas in the respiratory cycle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hibbs (academic)</span>

John B. Hibbs Jr. is an American physician-scientist and educator. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Macintyre</span> British endocrinologist

Iain Macintyre FRS was a British endocrinologist who made important contributions to the understanding of calcium regulation and bone metabolism. Shortly after the hormone calcitonin had been described by Harold Copp, Macintyre's team was the first to isolate and sequence the hormone and to demonstrate its origin in the parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland. He subsequently analysed its physiological actions. Along with H. R. Morris he isolated and sequenced calcitonin gene-related peptide. Later research centred on the role played by nitric oxide on bone metabolism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Csaba Szabo (pharmacologist)</span>

Csaba Szabo, a physician and pharmacologist, is the Head of the Pharmacology Section of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. The Public Library of Science Magazine, PLOS Biology, recognized Szabo in 2019 as one of the most cited researchers in the world.

References

  1. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Pr Sir Salvador Moncada | The University of Manchester". www.research.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  3. "New Director for Institute of Cancer Sciences". The University of Manchester. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  4. Howlett, R. (1998). "Nobel award stirs up debate on nitric oxide breakthrough". Nature. 395 (6703): 625–6. Bibcode:1998Natur.395Q.625H. doi: 10.1038/27019 . PMID   9790176.
  5. SoRelle, Ruth (1998). "Nobel Prize Awarded to Scientists for Nitric Oxide Discoveries". Circulation. 98 (22): 2365–2366. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.98.22.2365 . PMID   9832478.
  6. De Berrazueta, J. R. (1999). "The Nobel Prize for nitric oxide. The unjust exclusion of Dr. Salvador Moncada". Revista espanola de cardiologia. 52 (4): 221–6. doi:10.1016/s0300-8932(99)74902-x. PMID   10217961.
  7. Eldridge, S. "Paper prizes". The Guardian, Tuesday 20 November 2001
  8. Birmingham, K. (2002). "Salvador Moncada". Nature Medicine. 8 (2): 98. doi: 10.1038/nm0202-98 . PMID   11821882. S2CID   5417990.
  9. "He's had 68,889 namechecks..." Times Higher Education (THE). 29 April 2005. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  10. Roberto Valencia (2007) Inicio platicando. "Una vida útil (El perfil de un centroamericano de otro mundo: Salvador Moncada)" Archived 13 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "Honduras nombra a científico como embajador en China". LA NACION (in Spanish). 3 June 2023. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  12. "Sir Salvador Moncada FMedSci FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 8 October 2015.
  13. IT, Desarrollado con webControl CMS por Intermark. "Santiago Grisolía y Salvador Moncada – Premiados – Premios Princesa de Asturias". Fundación Princesa de Asturias. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  14. "Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine". University of Debrecen. Retrieved 7 January 2015.