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When
Albert Sjoerdsma, M.D., Ph.D., arrived at the National Institutes
of Health in Bethesda, Md., in the early 1950s, hypertension still
regularly debilitated and killed people. He resolved to change
this. Sjoerdsma had read that, when given intravenously, serotonin
dramatically elevated a person’s
blood pressure. Maybe, the young researcher reasoned, he could
manipulate serotonin within the body, by blocking a key enzyme
in its chemical “pathway,” and
bring blood pressure down.
This was revolutionary thinking.
Most drug discovery at the time was a matter of luck, not rational conception.
And little was known about serotonin except that it was involved
in the constriction of blood vessels during clotting.
For twenty years, Sjoerdsma explored
wide-ranging, uncharted territory in his Experimental Therapeutics
Branch of the National Heart Institute. Because of his ground-breaking
serotonin studies, he diagnosed and defined a cancer known as the
carcinoid syndrome; established the mechanism of action of the
first antidepressants, which originated in a major drug company’s
tuberculosis program; measured serotonin, dopamine, and other amines
in bananas and other foods; discovered the antihypertensive, Aldomet® (a
former Top-10 drug); identified treatment for the skin scourge,
scleroderma, and the unusual high-blood-pressure disorder, pheochromocytoma;
probed the biochemical nature of rapid-eye-movement sleep, and
much, much more.
Assisted by the laboratory methods and genius of his biochemist
partner, Sidney Udenfriend, a sophisticated New Yorker who “clicked” with
the rough erstwhile farm boy and University of Chicago standout,
and by top-notch, recently graduated M.D.s, Sjoerdsma built a one-of-a-kind
clinical research enterprise. He called his band of young associates
the “Wild Bunch,” and together, they made medical history and had
fun.
An advocate of designing drugs that work by inhibiting enzymes,
Sjoerdsma later enjoyed success as a worldwide leader in the pharmaceutical
industry, eventually serving as president of the Merrell Dow Research
Institute, headquartered in Cincinnati. With a talented cadre of
scientists, the unpredictable innovator developed the first-ever
rationally designed antiepileptic (Sabril®), also used today
in a debilitating infantile spasm disorder, and the first-ever
non-sedating antihistamine, Seldane®, replaced in time by its
metabolite, Allegra®. His pièce de résistance,
however, was the first 100-percent cure for deadly African sleeping
sickness—a drug known simply as DFMO. Long before American
eyes opened to Third World health tragedies, Sjoerdsma had a lab
devoted to research on parasitic diseases, as well as more traditional
cancer and heart disease programs. He also contributed to the early
treatment of AIDS patients.
Because of his inspired work at
the NIH and the physicians whom he trained—and who then spread
his research gospel to academia—the tough-talking and straight-shooting
Al Sjoerdsma became known as the Father of Clinical Pharmacology.
Gifted at discovery, he always practiced good science, “followed
his nose,” and optimized the research odds in his favor.
And when he could, he shot craps.
“Starting with
Serotonin” is his high-rolling story—lead by lead by
compelling lead—as researched, written, and ultimately reconstructed,
over six years, by prize-winning journalist Ann G. Sjoerdsma, his
daughter.

To read the . . .
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR “STARTING WITH SEROTONIN”
EXCERPTS FROM “STARTING WITH SEROTONIN,” and
REVIEWS ABOUT “STARTING WITH SEROTONIN,”
click on the appropriate line.
“Starting with Serotonin” is a hardcover book with 617 pages of text, including extensive endnotes and appendix material, and 16 pages of photographs. We expect it to be available soon in e-book form.

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