Loewi, Otto

Loewi, Otto

▪ German-American pharmacologist
born June 3, 1873, Frankfurt am Main, Ger.
died Dec. 25, 1961, New York, N.Y., U.S.

      German-born American physician and pharmacologist who, with Sir Henry Dale (Dale, Sir Henry), received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1936 for their discoveries relating to the chemical transmission of nerve impulses.

      After Loewi graduated in medicine (1896) from the German University (now the University of Strasbourg), he studied and taught in European universities, becoming professor of pharmacology at Graz, Austria, in 1909. In 1940 he went to the United States; he was made research professor at the School of Medicine of New York University, New York City, where he remained until his death.

      His neurological researches (1921–26) provided the first proof that chemicals were involved in the transmission of impulses from one nerve cell to another and from neuron to the responsive organ. He and his colleagues, by stimulating the nerves in the heart of a frog, slowed the heart's rate of contraction. The fluid perfusing this heart was allowed to perfuse a second heart in which the nerves were not stimulated; the second heart slowed in rate also, indicating the presence of a reactive substance in the fluid. This substance was shown to be acetylcholine, whose physiological properties Dale had described comprehensively in 1914. Acetylcholine was subsequently isolated from animal tissue by Dale and Harold Dudley in 1929.

      In addition to researches on the nervous system, Loewi studied diabetes and the action of the drugs digitalis and epinephrine. He devised Loewi's test for the detection of pancreatic disease.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • LOEWI, OTTO — (1873–1961), pharmacologist and Nobel laureate in physiology and medicine. Loewi was born in Frankfurt on the Main but became a U.S. citizen in 1946. He graduated in medicine at the University of Strasbourg (then in Germany). After initial… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Loewi , Otto — (1873–1961) German–American physiologist Loewi was born at Frankfurt am Main in Germany and qualified in medicine at the University of Strasbourg before taking up professorships in physiology and pharmacology at Vienna and Graz Universities. For… …   Scientists

  • Loewi, Otto — (1873 1961)    German physician and pharmacologist. Born in Frankfurt, he studied at Strasbourg University. From 1906 to 1909 he taught in Vienna, later becoming professor of pharmacology in Graz. He won the Nobel Prize for Physiology and… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Loewi, Otto — ► (1873 1961) Farmacólogo alemán. Fue premio Nobel de Medicina y Fisiología en 1936, compartido con H. H. Dale, por sus investigaciones sobre las correlaciones neurohormonales …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Loewi — Otto …   Scientists

  • Loewi — Loewi, Otto …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Otto Loewi — Born June 3, 1873(1873 06 03) Frankfurt, Germany …   Wikipedia

  • Otto Loewi — Nombre …   Wikipedia Español

  • Otto Loewi — en 1955 alors qu il habite aux États Unis Naissance 3 juin 1873 Francfort sur le Main ( …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Loewi — Otto Loewi (* 3. Juni 1873 in Frankfurt am Main; † 25. Dezember 1961 in New York) war ein österreichisch/deutsch amerikanischer Pharmakologe. Für ihre Entdeckungen bei der chemischen Übertragung der Nervenimpulse erhielten er und Henry H. Dale… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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