Furchgott, Robert Francis (1916-2009), was an American scientist who discovered new properties of the gas nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is present in most living things and is produced by many types of cells. Furchgott showed that nitric oxide can act as a chemical messenger that helps regulate relaxation of blood vessels and other important bodily functions. For his discoveries, Furchgott shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with two other Americans, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad. The three scientists were all specialists in pharmacology (the science of drugs). Working separately and sometimes together, they discovered that nitric oxide regulates a variety of important bodily functions and has valuable uses as a drug.
Furchgott was born on June 4, 1916, in Charleston, South Carolina. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina in 1937 and a doctor’s degree in biochemistry (the chemistry of living things) from Northwestern University in 1940.
Furchgott began his scientific career as a research fellow at Cornell University Medical College from 1940 to 1943. From 1949 to 1988, he taught at Washington University Medical School and did research there in biochemistry, pharmacology, and physiology (the study of bodily functions). In 1988, he joined the faculty of the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He became an emeritus professor in 1990 and retired in 2004. Furchgott died on May 19, 2009.
