Guillemin << GEE yuh MAN >>, Roger Charles Louis (1924-2024), a French-born American physiologist, shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with the American scientists Andrew Schally and Rosalyn Yalow for their research into hormones. Guillemin in particular was responsible for many discoveries about hormones originating in the hypothalamus (a lower part of the brain).
In 1949, Guillemin worked on the function of the hypothalamus in relation to the pituitary gland, a gland in the brain that regulates many bodily functions. In the 1970’s, Guillemin and others managed to isolate and identify three hormones secreted by the hypothalamus—thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), which stimulates the thyroid gland, and two other hormones that respectively release, and inhibit the release of, growth hormone. These discoveries have proved of major importance in our understanding of glandular diseases.
Guillemin also discovered a number of endorphins, protein substances in the brain that control physiological responses and suppress pain.
Guillemin was born in Dijon, France, on Jan. 11, 1924. He studied at the school of medicine in Dijon, and in 1949 gained a doctorate of medicine from the associated University of Lyon. He then went to the University of Montreal, in Canada, and did research, receiving a Ph.D. in 1953. That same year, Guillemin became an assistant professor at the Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. In 1963 he became an American citizen. From 1970 to 1989, Guillemin served as a research professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. He died on Feb. 21, 2024.
