Vane, John Robert (1927-2004), an English biochemist and pharmacologist, made important discoveries regarding prostaglandins and related substances. Prostaglandins are substances resembling hormones with a variety of functions including reproduction, metabolism, allergic reactions, nerve-impulse transmission, muscle contraction, and blood pressure regulation. For this work, Vane shared the 1982 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Swedish scientists Sune Bergstrom and Bengt Samuelsson.
Vane’s principal contribution to the study of prostaglandins was his discovery in the early 1970’s that the formation of certain prostaglandins–those associated with fever and inflammation–could be inhibited with aspirin. He also discovered prostacyclin, a substance that prevents blood platelets from clotting inside the blood vessels. Vane also developed a technique to measure the release of vasoactive hormones (hormones that constrict or dilate the blood vessels).
Vane was born on March 29, 1927, in Tardebigg, Worcestershire, England. He studied at the universities of Birmingham and Oxford. From 1953 to 1955, he taught at Yale University in the United States. In 1955, he joined the staff at the Royal College of Surgeons in England, becoming a professor there in 1966. He worked at the Wellcome Research Institute from 1973 to 1985. Vane was knighted in 1984. He died on Nov. 19, 2004.
