Vittorio Erspamer

Vittorio Erspamer

Vittorio Erspamer (born July 30, 1909 in Malosco , Austria-Hungary , † October 25, 1999 in Rome ) was an Italian pharmacologist . He was a professor at the universities of Pavia , Bari , Parma and Rome. His greatest scientific achievement was the discovery of the tissue hormone and neurotransmitter serotonin . In addition, he contributed to the discovery of other neurotransmitters such as the tachykinins , bombesin and deltorphin .

Career

Vittorio Erspamer attended the Collegio Vescovile of the Archdiocese of Trento and studied at the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia . As a student he published his first work on the histochemistry of enterochromaffin cells . In 1935 he completed his studies in medicine and surgery with the thesis " Il sistema delle cellule enterocromaffini nei vertebrati ". Following his doctorate, he stayed at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin from 1936–1939 . During this time he first described a substance from the enterochromaffin cells, which he called enteramin. This substance would later turn out to be identical to serotonin. In 1939 he returned to Pavia. In 1947 he took over the management of the Institute of Pharmacology at the Medical Faculty of Bari. In 1954 Erspamer was awarded an Antonio Feltrinelli Prize . In 1955 he accepted a professorship at the University of Parma and in 1967 he moved to the Sapienza University of Rome , where he headed the Institute of Pharmacology. With the help of studies on amphibians and molluscs , his working group was able to isolate and identify numerous new peptide neurotransmitters, including cerulein , the tachykinins, sauvagin , bombesin, dermorphin and deltorphin. Even after his retirement in 1984, he continued his research in the field of neurotransmitters. In 1990 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1992 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

literature

• Negri L .: Vittorio Erspamer (1909–1999) . In: Med Secoli . 18, No. 1, 2006, pp. 97-113. PMID 17526278 .