James Batcheller Sumner, John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley
Discovery that enzymes can be crystallized and prepared in a pure form
1947
Carl Ferdinand Cori, Getty Theresa Cori (neé Radnitz) and Bernardo Alberto Houssay
Discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen
1950
Edwin Calvin Kendall, Tadeus Reichstein and Philip Showalter Hench
Discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects
1955
Vincent du Vigneaud
Biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone
1958
Frederick Sanger
Structures of proteins, especially that of insulin
1964
Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lynen
Discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism
1964
Dorothy Hodgkin
X‐ray crystallography, a method used to determine the three‐dimensional structures of molecules, including insulin
1966
Charles Brenton Huggins
Discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer
1969
Derek HR Barton and Odd Hassel
Development of the concept of conformation and its application in chemistry
1970
Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod
Discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation
1971
Earl W Sutherland Jr
Discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones
1977
Roger Guillemin, Andrew V Schally and Rosalyn Yalow
Discoveries concerning peptide hormones in the production in the brain and the development of radioimmunoassay from peptide hormones
1979
Allan M Cormack and Godfrey N Hounsfield
Development of computer‐assisted tomography
1982
Sune K Bergström, Bengt I Samuelson and John R Vane
Discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances
1985
Michael S Brown and Joseph L Goldstein
Discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism
1986
Stanley Cohen and Rita Levi‐Montalcini
Discoveries of growth factors
1992
Edmond H Fischer and Edwin G Krebs
Discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism
1994
Alfred G Gilman and Martin Rodbell
Discovery of G‐proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells
2003
Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon
Discovery of water channels, and the structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels
2003
Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield
Discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging
2010
Robert G Edwards
Development of in vitro fertilisation
Figure 1.2 The sites of the principal endocrine glands. While the stomach, kidneys and duodenum are shown, a multitude of different hormones are secreted right the way along the gastrointestinal tract.
Traditionally, endocrinology has centred on specialized hormone‐secreting organs (Figure 1.2), largely founded on the ‘endocrine postulates’ of Edward Doisy (Box 1.3). While the focus of this textbook remains on these organs, virtually all tissues make hormones of some description or, equally relevant, modulate the action of hormones from other sites. All of these different aspects are important for a complete appreciation of endocrinology and its significance.
Box 1.3 The ‘Endocrine Postulates’: Edward Doisy, St Louis University School of Medicine, USA, 1936
The gland must secrete a substance (an ‘internal secretion’)
Methods of detecting the secretion must be available
The purified substance (the hormone) must be recoverable from gland extracts
The hormone must be capable of isolation for its structure to be determined and for synthesis
To this could be added:
The hormone must act on specific target cells via a receptor such that excess or deficiency causes a specific phenotype
The role of hormones
Endocrine (i.e. hormone‐secreting) cells may exist as distinct glands or be located as single cells within other organs, such as the gastrointestinal tract (Table 1.2). The chapters in Part 2 are largely organized on this anatomical basis.
Hormones act by binding to specific receptors, either on the surface of or inside the target cell, to initiate a cascade of intracellular reactions, which frequently amplifies the original stimulus and generates a final response. These responses are altered in hormone deficiency or excess: for instance, GH deficiency leads to short stature in children, while excess causes over‐growth (either gigantism or acromegaly; Chapter 5).
Table 1.2 The endocrine organs and their hormones*
