Pert, Candace (1946-2013), an American neuroscientist and biochemist, became known for her work on chemical substances that affect the nervous system of human beings and other animals. In 1972, Pert and her colleagues discovered the opiate receptor (now called the opioid receptor) in the nervous system of guinea pigs, mice, and rats. Shortly afterward, they discovered opiate receptors in the nervous systems of other animals, including fish, snakes, birds, monkeys, and human beings. A receptor is a protein molecule on the surface of a cell. Specific molecules bind to the receptor, signaling the cell to respond. In human beings and other animals, certain molecules bind to the opiate receptors in the nervous system, resulting in pain relief and a feeling of well-being.
Pert and other scientists knew that opioid drugs, such as heroin, morphine, and opium, produce some of their effects by binding to specific receptors in the brain. But scientists did not know why human beings and other animals possessed specific receptors to these substances. Research on this question led the Scottish scientists John Hughes and Hans Kosterlitz to the discovery of endorphins in 1975. Endorphins are a group of naturally occurring chemical substances that bind to opiate receptors in the nervous system of human beings and other animals. Scientists believe that endorphins help control the brain’s perception of pain and stress, and the brain’s response to them. Endorphins may form part of the body’s pain-relieving system.
Candace Dorinda Bebe Pert was born in New York City on June 26, 1946. She studied biology at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, graduating in 1970. She earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1974. She continued at Johns Hopkins University as a postdoctoral fellow from 1974 to 1975. In 1975, she began working at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). She was head of the brain chemistry section from 1982 to 1987. In 1986, Pert’s team discovered Peptide T, a chemical substance that some scientists think could help treat AIDS patients. Pert died on Sept. 12, 2013.
Pert left the NIMH in 1987 and continued her peptide research at privately owned companies. Three years later, she became an adjunct professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University’s Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She was later named research professor in the department. Her autobiography, Molecules of Emotion (1997), describes possible connections between biology, emotions, alternative medicine, and the immune system.
