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James Black

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Sir James Whyte Black, OM, FRS, FRSE, FRCP (14 June 1924 – 22 March 2010[2]) was a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist. Black started in the physiology department at the University of Glasgow. While there, he became interested in how adrenaline affected the human heart. He went to work for ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1958. While working for ICI, he created propranolol. Propranolol is a beta blocker, used to treat heart disease. Black also created cimetidine. It is a drug used to treat stomach ulcers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for creating these drugs.[3]

James Whyte Black
James Black (pharmacologist).jpg
Born(1924-06-14)14 June 1924
Uddingston, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died22 March 2010(2010-03-22) (aged 85)[1]
London
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma materUniversity College, Dundee
Known forwork towards the use of propranolol and cimetidine
AwardsLasker award (1976)
Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize (1979)
Wolf Prize in Medecine (1982)
Nobel Prize for Medicine (1988)
Royal Medal (2004)
Scientific career
FieldsPharmacology
InstitutionsUniversity of Glasgow
ICI Pharmaceuticals
University College London
King's College London
University of St Andrews
University of Malaya

Early life and education

Black was born in Uddingston, Lanarkshire. He was the fourth of five sons of a Baptist family.[4] His father was a mining engineer.[4] He grew up in Fife. Black went to Beath High School, Cowdenbeath. At the age of 15, he won a scholarship to the University of St Andrews. At St Andrews, he studied medicine.[4] He graduated in 1946.[5]

After graduating he joined the Physiology department at University College as an Assistant Lecturer. He later took a lecturer position at the University of Malaya.[5][6] Black had decided against a career as a medical practitioner as he objected to what he perceived as the insensitive treatment of patients at the time.[6]

Career

After graduation, Black took a teaching job in Singapore for three years. He moved to London in 1950.[7] Later in 1950, he returned to Scotland. He joined the University of Glasgow (Veterinarian School). There that he became interesteed in how adrenaline affects the human heart. He was mainly interesting in how it affected people with angina.[8] He found the effects of adrenaline did not help. He joined ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1958. He worked with the company until 1964. During this time, he created propranolol, which became the world's best-selling drug.[8] While at ICI, Black developed a new way of doing research. Before this, drug molecules would be created and then tested to find in what ways the molecules could be used as medicine. Black chose to pick a medical use and then try to create the molecules for that medicine.[6] The discovery of propranolol was said to be the greatest discovery in the treatment of heart disease since the discovery of digitalis.[8]

At the same time, Black was trying to find a treatment for stomach ulcers. ICI did not wish to do this so Black stopped working for them in 1964. He joined Smith, Kline and French. He worked for them for nine years until 1973.[9] While there, Black developed his second major drug, cimetidine. It was first sold under the brand name Tagamet in 1975. Tagamet soon outsold propranolol to become the world's largest-selling prescription drug.[8]

Black became the department head of pharmacology at University College London in 1973. He created a new undergraduate course in medicinal chemistry.[4] He had many problems trying to get money for research, so he quit. He went to work for Wellcome Research Laboratories in 1978.[6] He worked there until 1984.[6] Black then became Professor of Analytical Pharmacology at the Rayne Institute of King's College London medical school. He stayed there until 1992.[6] He created the James Black Foundation in 1988 with money from Johnson and Johnson. He worked with 25 scientists in drugs research. This research included gastrin inhibitors which may stop some stomach cancers.[6]

Black helped increase basic scientific and clinical knowledge in cardiology. His creation of propranolol is thought to be one of the most important contributions to clinical medicine and pharmacology of the 20th century.[10][11] Propranolol has helped millions of people.[6]

Honours and awards

Black was made a Knight Bachelor on 10 February 1981 for services to medical research. He received the honour from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.[8][12] On 26 May 2000 he was appointed to the Order of Merit by the Queen.[13][14]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976. That same year he was awarded the Lasker award.[15] In 1979, he was awarded the Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize. In 1982 Black was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine.[6] He was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings for their work on drug development.[16] In 1994 he received the Ellison-Cliffe Medal from the Royal Society of Medicine.

References

  1. ↑ Scottish Nobel prize winner Sir James Black dies at age 85. The Daily Record. 23 March 2010. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/03/23/scottish-nobel-prize-winner-sir-james-black-dies-at-age-85-86908-22132778/. Retrieved 25 March 2010. 
  2. ↑ "Nobel Prize winning scientist dies" Archived 2012-02-29 at the Wayback Machine stv.tv 22 March 2010 Link accessed 22 March 2010
  3. ↑ Tore Frängsmyr (1989). "Sir James W. Black: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". Les Prix Nobel. Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Black, Sir James W. "Autobiography". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Death of Sir James Black". Archives, Records and Artefacts at the University of Dundee. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Sir James Black, OM. The Telegraph. 23 March 2010. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/7507080/Sir-James-Black-OM.html. Retrieved 25 March 2010. 
  7. ↑ Heart disease treatment pioneer James Black dies. Associated Press. 22 March 2010. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i2Ues0zJeT4AJpCxJoQTN4odqhCQD9EJUOF00. Retrieved 25 March 2010. [dead link]
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "Led the way in heart drug find". The Age (Melbourne: Fairfax Digital). 25 March 2010. http://www.theage.com.au/world/led-the-way-in-heart-drug-find-20100324-qwo8.html. Retrieved 25 March 2010. 
  9. ↑ "Sir James Black talks about his move from ICI to Smith Kline & French (part of a series of in-depth videos of Sir James Black telling his life story (http://webofstories.com)". Web of Stories.
  10. ↑ Stapleton, Melanie P. (1997). "Sir James Black and Propranolol". Texas Heart Institute Journal. 24 (4): 336–342. PMC 325477. PMID 9456487.
  11. ↑ ""anTAGonist" and "ciMETidine"". American Chemical Society. 2005. Retrieved December 25, 2005.
  12. ↑ No. 48542. 3 March 1981. p. 3087. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/48542/supplement/3087 
  13. ↑ No. 55859. 26 May 2000. p. 5821. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/55859/page/5821 
  14. ↑ Diffin, Elizabeth (24 March 2010). "What is the Order of Merit?". BBC News Magazine (BBC). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8584941.stm. Retrieved 25 March 2010. 
  15. ↑ "1976 winners: Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research". Lasker Medical Research Network. 1976. Archived from the original on 2006-01-09. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  16. ↑ "1988 Nobel Prize for Medicine". Karolinska Institute. 1988.

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