| Sir James Whyte Black | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 June 1924 Uddingston, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Died | 22 March 2010 (aged 85) London |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Fields | Pharmacology |
| Institutions | University of Malaya University of Glasgow ICI Pharmaceuticals University College London King's College London University of St Andrews |
| Alma mater | University College, Dundee |
| Known for | work towards the use of propranolol and cimetidine |
| Notable awards | Lasker award (1976) Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize (1979) Nobel Prize for Medicine (1988) Royal Medal (2004) |
Sir James Whyte Black, OM, FRS, FRSE, FRCP (14 June 1924 – 22 March 2010[1]) was a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist. He spent his career both as researcher and as an academic at several universities. Black established the physiology department at the University of Glasgow, where he became interested in the effects of adrenaline on the human heart. He went to work for ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1958 and, while there, developed propranolol, a beta blocker used for the treatment of heart disease. Black was also responsible for the development of cimetidine, a drug used in a similar manner to treat stomach ulcers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988 for work leading to the development of propranolol and cimetidine.[2]
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Black was born on 14 June 1924 in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, the fourth of five sons of a Baptist family which traced its origins to Balquhidder, Perthshire.[3] His father was a mining engineer.[3] He was brought up in Fife, educated at Beath High School, Cowdenbeath, and, at the age of 15, won a scholarship to the University of St Andrews, where he studied medicine.[3] His family had been too poor to send him to university and he had been persuaded to sit the St Andrews entrance exam by his maths teacher at Beath.[4]
Before 1967, including his time as a student, all of St Andrews' clinical medical activity took place at University College, which separated to become the University of Dundee, of which Black later became Chancellor. He joined the Physiology department at the University of St Andrews before taking a lecturer position at the University of Malaya.[5] Black had decided against a career as a medical practitioner as he objected to what he perceived as the insensitive treatment of patients at the time.[5]
Black had large debts upon his graduation from university in 1947, so took a teaching job in Singapore for three years, before moving to London in 1950.[6] Upon his return to Scotland in 1950, he joined the University of Glasgow (Veterinary School) where he established the Physiology Department and developed an interest in the way adrenaline affects the human heart, particularly those suffering from angina.[7] Having formulated a theory to annul the effects of adrenaline, he joined ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1958, remaining with the company until 1964, during which time he developed propranolol, which later became the world's best-selling drug.[7] During this time Black pioneered a method of research whereby drug molecules were purposefully built instead of being synthesised first and then investigated for their potential medical uses.[5] The discovery of propranolol was hailed as the greatest breakthrough in the treatment of heart disease since the discovery of digitalis.[7]
At the same time, Black was developing a similar method of treatment for stomach ulcers, but ICI did not wish to pursue the idea so Black resigned in 1964 and joined Smith, Kline and French for whom he worked for nine years until 1973. While there, Black developed his second major drug, cimetidine which was launched under the brand name Tagamet in 1975 and soon outsold propranolol to become the world's largest-selling prescription drug.[7]
Black was appointed professor, and head of department, of pharmacology at University College London in 1973 where he established a new undergraduate course in medicinal chemistry[3] but he became frustrated by the lack of funding for research and accepted the post of director of therapeutic research at the Wellcome Research Laboratories in 1978.[5] However he did not agree with his immediate boss there, Sir John Vane, and resigned in 1984.[5] Black then became Professor of Analytical Pharmacology at the Rayne Institute of the King's College London medical school, where he remained until 1992.[5] He established the James Black Foundation in 1988 with funding from Johnson and Johnson and led a team of 25 scientists in drugs research, including gastrin inhibitors which may prevent some stomach cancers.[5]
Black contributed to basic scientific and clinical knowledge in cardiology, both as a physician and as a basic scientist. His invention of propranolol, the beta adrenergic receptor antagonist that revolutionised the medical management of angina pectoris, is considered to be one of the most important contributions to clinical medicine and pharmacology of the 20th century.[8][9] Propranolol has been described as the greatest breakthrough in heart disease treatments since the 18th century discovery of digitalis and has benefited millions of people.[5] Black's method of research, his discoveries about adrenergic pharmacology, and his clarification of the mechanisms of cardiac action are all strengths of his work.[10]
He was greatly involved in the synthesis of cimetidine, at the time a revolutionary drug for the treatment and prevention of peptic ulcers. Cimetidine was the first of a new class of drugs, the H2-receptor antagonists.
Black was the Chancellor of the University of Dundee between 1992 and May 2006. In August 2006, the Sir James Black Centre was officially incorporated into the College of Life Sciences at the university.
Black was made a Knight Bachelor on 10 February 1981 for services to medical research, receiving the honour from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.[7][11] On 26 May 2000 he was appointed to the Order of Merit, of which there are only 24 members at any one time, by Queen Elizabeth II.[12][13]
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976 and the same year he was awarded the Lasker award.[14] In 1979, he was awarded the Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize. In 1982 Black was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine.[5] He was awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings for their work on drug development.[15]
Black met Hilary Joan Vaughan (1924–1986) at a ball at university in 1944 and the couple married in 1946 upon his graduation. He described her as the "mainspring" of his life until she died aged 61 in Surrey.[3][16] The couple had a daughter, Stephanie, born in 1951.[3] Black remarried in 1994 to Professor Rona MacKie.[5] Black was a very private man who was averse to publicity and was horrified to discover he had won the Nobel Prize.[5]
Black died, aged 85, on the morning of 22 March 2010 after a long illness. His death was announced by the University of Dundee, where Black served as vice chancellor from 1992 to 2006.[17] His funeral was held on 29 March at St. Columba's Church, London.[6] Upon hearing of Black's death, Professor Pete Downes, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dundee said Black "was a great scientist, but he was also a great man to know" while the BBC said he was "hailed as one of the great Scottish scientists of the 20th Century".[13] He was described by The Daily Telegraph as the man who earned the most for the pharmaceutical industry through his drug development, though he received little personal financial gain from his work.[5]
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by Earl of Dalhousie |
Chancellor of the University of Dundee 1992–2006 |
Succeeded by Baron Patel |
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