Vittorio Erspamer

Vittorio Erspamer ( born July 30, 1909 in Lamosco, Austria - Hungary, † October 25, 1999 in Rome ) was an Italian pharmacologist. He was professor at the universities of Pavia, Bari, Parma and Rome. His greatest scientific achievement was the discovery of Gewebshormons and the neurotransmitter serotonin. In addition, he has to finding other neurotransmitters, such as the tachykinins, the bombesin and deltorphin, contributed.

Career

Vittorio Erspamer visited the Collegio vescovile of the Archdiocese of Trent and studied at the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia. Already as a student he published his first work on the histochemistry of enterochromaffin cells. In 1935, he completed his studies of medicine and surgery with the work " Il sistema delle cellule enterocromaffini nei vertebrati ". Following his promotion was followed by 1936-1939 a stay at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University of Berlin. During this time he first described a substance from the enterochromaffin cells, which he called duck Ramin. This substance should later turn out to be identical to serotonin. In 1939 he returned to Pavia. In 1947 he became head of the Institute of Pharmacology, Medical School of Bari. 1954 Ersparmer was awarded an Antonio Feltrinelli Prize. In 1955 he accepted a professorship at the University of Parma and in 1967 he joined the Sapienza University of Rome, where he headed the Institute of Pharmacology. Here was his team with the help of studies on amphibians and molluscs numerous new peptide neurotransmitters, including cerulein, the tachykinins, sauvagine, bombesin, dermorphin and deltorphin, isolate and identify. Even after his retirement in 1984, he continued his research activity continued in the field of neurotransmitters.