Sir Henry DaleBorn 9 Jun 1875; died 23 Jul 1968 at age 93. Sir Henry Hallett Dale was an English biologist and physiologist whoisolated(1914) the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from ergot fungi. In 1936 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with the German pharmacologist Otto Loewi) for discoveries in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses. Otto Loewi had shown that a substance released by electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve was responsible for effecting changes in heartbeat. Following up this work, Dale showed that the substance is in fact acetylcholine, thus establishing that chemical as well as electrical stimuli are involved in nerve action. He also worked on the properties of histamine and related substances, including their actions in allergic and anaphylactic conditions. |
