Robert
Furchgott, an American scientist who
led to the development of the anti-impotency
drug Viagra passes away, he was 92.
Furchgott shared a Nobel Prize in
1998 for his work showing that the
gas, nitric oxide played an important
role in the cardiovascular system.
The discovery that the gas could help
enlarge blood vessels was a factor
in the development of Viagra by the
US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
The scientist was born in 1916 and
graduated with a degree in chemistry
in 1937 in University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and received a PhD
in biochemistry in 1940 in North Western
University.
Aside from the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine which he received in 1998,
the scientist had also received a
Gairdner Foundation International
Award for his groundbreaking discoveries
(1991) and the Albert Lasker Award
for Basic Medical Research (1996),
the latter with Ferid Murad.
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