Michael Rhodes
2004-11-22 01:22:08 UTC
<<Sir John Vane>>
<<Daily Telegraph, Monday 22 Nov, 2004>>
Sir John Vane, who died on Friday aged 77, shared the Nobel Prize for
Medicine in 1982 for his discovery, in 1976, of prostacyclin, the
blood-vessel dilating prostaglandin that inhibits blood-clotting, and
for his earlier work on aspirin.
Vane's discoveries led to new treatments for heart and blood-vessel
disease, and to the development and introduction of a new class of
life-saving drugs to control pulmonary hypertension - the Ace
inhibitors - from which tens of thousands of people around the world
have since benefitted.
John Robert Vane was born at Tardebigg, Worcestershire, on March 29
1927. His father, the son of Russian immigrants, ran a company making
portable buildings; his mother came from a Worcestershire farming
family.
John went to King Edward VI school, Edgbaston, on the outskirts of
Birmingham. When he was 12, his parents gave him a chemistry set for
Christmas. The present ignited a passion for experimentation - and also
an explosion in the Vanes' newly decorated kitchen that prompted his
father to build and equip a garden shed for John's future experiments.
encouraged. Asked by the Professor of Chemistry, Maurice Stacey, what
he wished to do after graduating, Vane replied: "Anything but
chemistry."
Stacey pointed his pupil in the direction of pharmacology, and although
Vane was almost completely ignorant of the subject he seized the
opportunity, presented to him by Stacey, to train under the Oxford
pharmacologist Professor Harold Burn. Vane went to work for Burn in
Oxford in 1946.
Burn's laboratory was then on the way to becoming the most important
centre for pharmacological research in Britain, and the main school for
training young pharmacologists. Encouraged to experiment and never to
ignore the unusual, Vane was inspired by Burn's originality and
enthusiasm.
Having obtained his BSc, Vane spent a short spell in the pharmacology
department of Sheffield University, before returning to Oxford to study
for a DPhil at the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research. Having been
awarded a Stothert Research Fellowship by the Royal Society, he
completed his doctorate in 1953.
years returned to Britain to work at the graduate Institute of Basic
Medical Sciences of London University in the Royal College of Surgeons.
He stayed at the Insitute for 18 years, progressing from Senior
Lecturer to Reader and finally to Professor of Experimental
Pharmacology.
During this period, when Vane had time for research, he developed, with
others, the cascade superfusion bioassay technique for measurement of,
dynamically and instantaneously, the release and fate of vasoactive
hormones in the circulation or in the perfusion fluid of isolated
organs.
In the mid-1960s, he turned his attention to prostaglandins, and found
a link between aspirin and the prostaglandins. In 1971 Vane discovered
that aspirin blocks the action of prostaglandins, which have many
functions to do with the circulation, inflammation and control of
muscular contractions.
In particular, it emerged that aspirin knocks out the prostaglandin
thromboxane in the blood platelets. Only a small dose, 75mg a day, is
necessary to prevent the blood from clotting, and so has considerable
potential for preventing such disorders as heart attacks, strokes and
leg thromboses.
In 1973, Vane was invited to become Group Research and Development
Director for the Wellcome Foundation. Friends advised him to decline;
they said that he would be "selling his scientific soul for a mess of
commercial potage". But he accepted the post and had no cause for
regret.
He took with him to Wellcome a group of colleagues from the Royal
College of Surgeons, and this in due course expanded into a
Prostaglandin Research department under the leadership of Salvador
Moncada. It was here that prostacyclin was discovered and its
pharmacology developed.
Vane was knighted in 1984, and left the Wellcome Foundation the next
year. In 1986 he became founder director of the William Harvey Research
Institute, to further research on atherosclerosis. Having built up a
membership of more than 100, he stepped down to become honorary
president in 1997.
London (1976), Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (1979), Harvard
University (1979) and St Marianna University, Japan (1993).
He was General Secretary of the British Pharmacological Society from
1970 to 1973, and the author or co-author of a wealth of learned
articles.
He was elected a Member of the Royal Society in 1974, and served as a
vice-president of the Society from 1985 to 1987. He was a member of
several overseas academies of medicine and science, and the recipient
of international medals, prizes and honorary degrees too numerous to
list.
John Vane married, in 1948, Elizabeth Daphne Page; they had two
daughters.
<<Daily Telegraph, Monday 22 Nov, 2004>>
Sir John Vane, who died on Friday aged 77, shared the Nobel Prize for
Medicine in 1982 for his discovery, in 1976, of prostacyclin, the
blood-vessel dilating prostaglandin that inhibits blood-clotting, and
for his earlier work on aspirin.
Vane's discoveries led to new treatments for heart and blood-vessel
disease, and to the development and introduction of a new class of
life-saving drugs to control pulmonary hypertension - the Ace
inhibitors - from which tens of thousands of people around the world
have since benefitted.
John Robert Vane was born at Tardebigg, Worcestershire, on March 29
1927. His father, the son of Russian immigrants, ran a company making
portable buildings; his mother came from a Worcestershire farming
family.
John went to King Edward VI school, Edgbaston, on the outskirts of
Birmingham. When he was 12, his parents gave him a chemistry set for
Christmas. The present ignited a passion for experimentation - and also
an explosion in the Vanes' newly decorated kitchen that prompted his
father to build and equip a garden shed for John's future experiments.
From school, John went on to read Chemistry at Birmingham University,
where he was disappointed to find that experimentation was notencouraged. Asked by the Professor of Chemistry, Maurice Stacey, what
he wished to do after graduating, Vane replied: "Anything but
chemistry."
Stacey pointed his pupil in the direction of pharmacology, and although
Vane was almost completely ignorant of the subject he seized the
opportunity, presented to him by Stacey, to train under the Oxford
pharmacologist Professor Harold Burn. Vane went to work for Burn in
Oxford in 1946.
Burn's laboratory was then on the way to becoming the most important
centre for pharmacological research in Britain, and the main school for
training young pharmacologists. Encouraged to experiment and never to
ignore the unusual, Vane was inspired by Burn's originality and
enthusiasm.
Having obtained his BSc, Vane spent a short spell in the pharmacology
department of Sheffield University, before returning to Oxford to study
for a DPhil at the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research. Having been
awarded a Stothert Research Fellowship by the Royal Society, he
completed his doctorate in 1953.
From Oxford, Vane went to Yale University as an instructor, then
Assistant Professor, in the Department of Pharmacology, but after twoyears returned to Britain to work at the graduate Institute of Basic
Medical Sciences of London University in the Royal College of Surgeons.
He stayed at the Insitute for 18 years, progressing from Senior
Lecturer to Reader and finally to Professor of Experimental
Pharmacology.
During this period, when Vane had time for research, he developed, with
others, the cascade superfusion bioassay technique for measurement of,
dynamically and instantaneously, the release and fate of vasoactive
hormones in the circulation or in the perfusion fluid of isolated
organs.
In the mid-1960s, he turned his attention to prostaglandins, and found
a link between aspirin and the prostaglandins. In 1971 Vane discovered
that aspirin blocks the action of prostaglandins, which have many
functions to do with the circulation, inflammation and control of
muscular contractions.
In particular, it emerged that aspirin knocks out the prostaglandin
thromboxane in the blood platelets. Only a small dose, 75mg a day, is
necessary to prevent the blood from clotting, and so has considerable
potential for preventing such disorders as heart attacks, strokes and
leg thromboses.
In 1973, Vane was invited to become Group Research and Development
Director for the Wellcome Foundation. Friends advised him to decline;
they said that he would be "selling his scientific soul for a mess of
commercial potage". But he accepted the post and had no cause for
regret.
He took with him to Wellcome a group of colleagues from the Royal
College of Surgeons, and this in due course expanded into a
Prostaglandin Research department under the leadership of Salvador
Moncada. It was here that prostacyclin was discovered and its
pharmacology developed.
Vane was knighted in 1984, and left the Wellcome Foundation the next
year. In 1986 he became founder director of the William Harvey Research
Institute, to further research on atherosclerosis. Having built up a
membership of more than 100, he stepped down to become honorary
president in 1997.
From 1986, Vane was Professor of Pharmacology and of Medicine, New York
Medical College. He held visiting professorships at King's College,London (1976), Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (1979), Harvard
University (1979) and St Marianna University, Japan (1993).
He was General Secretary of the British Pharmacological Society from
1970 to 1973, and the author or co-author of a wealth of learned
articles.
He was elected a Member of the Royal Society in 1974, and served as a
vice-president of the Society from 1985 to 1987. He was a member of
several overseas academies of medicine and science, and the recipient
of international medals, prizes and honorary degrees too numerous to
list.
John Vane married, in 1948, Elizabeth Daphne Page; they had two
daughters.