|
John W. Daly, Ph.D. is an internationally known chemist/pharmacologist. Now a scientist emeritus in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Dr. Daly was chief of NIDDK’s Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, a laboratory he founded and headed from 1981 to 1997. Natural products discovered through the research of Dr. Daly’s lab, primarily alkaloids derived from amphibian skin, have had a major impact on knowledge of how the nervous system functions and how drugs interact with the nervous system. During Dr. Daly’s 40-year tenure at NIH, his numerous accomplishments have included the discovery of the NIH Shift an unexpected molecular process involved in the conversion of the amino acids phenylalanine and tryptophan to the important neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. Author of more than 500 research papers, a book (Cyclic Nucleotides in the Nervous System) and many book chapters, Dr. Daly was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997. Among his many other honors are the Hillebrand Award from the American Chemical Society in 1978, the Research Achievement Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy in 1997, the Karl Wilhelm Scheele Award from the Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1999 and in 2002, the American Chemical Society’s Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products. That same year, he was also named among the most-cited pharmacologists in the world. | 