Bernardo Houssay
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/* Works */
{{Infobox Scientist
|name = Bernardo Houssay
|box_width =
|image =Bernado Houssay.JPG
|image_width =150px
|caption = Bernardo Houssay
|birth_date = [[April 10]], [[1887]]
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|death_date = [[September 21]], [[1971]]
|death_place =
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|nationality = [[Argentina|Argentine]]
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|field = [[physiology]]
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|known_for = [[glucose]]
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|prizes = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]]1947 [[Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine]]
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'''Bernardo Alberto Houssay''' ([[April 10]], [[1887]] – [[September 21]], [[1971]]) was an [[Argentina|Argentine]] [[physiologist]] who received (with [[Carl Ferdinand Cori|Carl]] and [[Gerty Cori]]) the 1947 [[Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine]] for his discovery of the role played by [[pituitary]] [[hormones]] in regulating the amount of blood sugar ([[glucose]]) in animals. He was also the first Argentine and Latin American to be awarded with a Nobel Prize on some field of the Sciences.
==Life==
Bernardo Alberto Houssay was born on [[April 10]], [[1887]], in [[Buenos Aires]], to a [[France|French]] couple who had immigrated to Argentina, Dr. Albert and Clara Houssay. A precocious youngster, he was admitted to the Pharmacy School at the [[University of Buenos Aires]] at 14 years of age and subsequently to the Medical School of the same University from 1904 to 1910, beginning when he was only 17 years old. While a third year medical student, Houssay took up a post as a research and teaching assistant in the Chair of [[Physiology]]. After graduating, he quickly developed and presented his [[M.D.]] thesis on the physiological activities of [[pituitary]] extracts, published in 1911, a theme he would pursue for the rest of his scientific career. Since 1908 he was already an assistant lecturer in the same department, and immediately after his doctorate he took up the post of Professor of Physiology in the University's School of [[Veterinary Medicine]]. Simultaneously, he started a private practice and as assistant [[physician]] at the municipal hospital of Buenos Aires. In 1913 he became Chief Physician at the [[Alvear Hospital]], and, in 1915, Chief of the Section of Experimental [[Pathology]] at the National Public Health Laboratories in Buenos Aires.
In 1919 Houssay was appointed to the chair of physiology at the [[University of Buenos Aires]] Medicine School, and, until 1943, he transformed and directed it into a highly respected research department in experimental physiology and medicine of international class. In that year, however, the military dictatorship deprived him of his university posts, due to his [[liberalism|liberal]] political ideas and Houssay was forced to re-establish his research lines and staff at a privately funded [[Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental]]. This situation, reinforced by a second dismissal by the [[Juan Peron|Peronista]] government in 1945, was prolonged until 1955, when Peron was ousted from power and Houssay was reinstated in the University of Buenos Aires, where he remained till he died. His retirement. After this he was also director of the [[National Scientific and Technical Research Council]], from 1957 on.
==Works==
Houssay’s worked in many fields of physiology, such as the nervous, digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems, but his main contribution, which was recognized by the [[Nobel Prize]] in Physiology or Medicine of 1947, was on the experimental investigation of the role of the anterior hypophysis gland in the [[metabolism]] of [[carbohydrates]], particularly in [[diabetes mellitus]]. Houssay demonstrated in the 1930s the diabetogenic effect anterior hypophysis extracts and the decrease in diabetes severity with anterior hypophysectomy. These discoveries stimulated the study of [[hormone|hormonal]] feedback control mechanisms which are central to all aspects of modern [[endocrinology]].
Houssay’s many disciples along his years of activity became also influential by themselves as they spread around the world; such as [[Eduardo Braun-Menéndez]], and [[Miguel Rolando Covian]] (who went to become the "father" of Brazilian neurophysiology, as chairman of the Department of Physiology of the [[Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto|Medical Faculty of Ribeirão Preto]] of the University of São Paulo). Houssay wrote with them the most influential textbook of Human Physiology in Latin America, in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] (the latter was translated by Covian and collaborators), which, since 1950 has been published in successive editions and used in almost all medical schools of the continent. Houssay published more than 600 scientific papers and several specialized books. Besides the Nobel, Houssay won many distinctions and awards from the Universities of [[Harvard]], [[Cambridge]], [[Oxford]] and [[Paris]] and 15 other universities, as well as the prestigious Dale Medal of the Society of Endocrinology (London) in 1960.
Houssay was also very active as a scientific leader and promoter of the advancement of scientific research and medical education, in Argentina as well as in Latin America.
He died on [[September 21]], [[1971]], in Buenos Aires and is buried in the [[La Chacarita Cemetery]].
== References==
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:1855459
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1855459
|last=Sawyer
|first=C H
|publication-date=1991 Aug
|year=1991
|title=Remembrances of contributions of Philip Smith and Bernardo Houssay to the development of neuroendocrinology.
|volume=129
|issue=2
|periodical=[[Endocrinology (journal)|Endocrinology]]
|pages=577-8
}}
*{{Citation
|id = [[PMID]]:4882480
|url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4882480
|last=Sulek
|first=K
|publication-date=1968 Sep 1
|year=1968
|title=[Nobel prize for Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerta Theresa Cori in 1947 for discovery of the course of catalytic metabolism of glycogen. Prize for Alberto Bernardo Houssay For discovery on the role of the hypophysis in carbohydrate metabolism]
|volume=21
|issue=17
|periodical=Wiad. Lek.
|pages=1609-10
}}
==Selected bibliography==
* Functions of the Pituitary Gland. Boston, 1936.
* The Hypophysis and Secretion of Insulin. ''Journal of Experimental Medicine'', New York, 1942, 75: 547-566.
* Escritos y Discursos. Buenos Aires, 1942.
* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1947/houssay-lecture.html The Role of the Hypophysis in Carbohydrate Metabolism and in Diabetes]. Nobel Prize lecture, 1947.
* Fisiologia Humana. Buenos Aires, 1950.
==External links==
* [http://www.houssay.org.ar/ Official site of his life and works] (In Castilian)
* [http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1976.html Bernardo Alberto Houssay]. WhoNamedIt.
* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1947/houssay-bio.html Bernardo Alberto Houssay Biography]. Nobel Foundation.
{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1926-1950}}
[[Category:1887 births|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:1971 deaths|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:People from Buenos Aires|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:Argentine physicians|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:Argentine scientists|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:Argentine Nobel laureates|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine|Houssay, Bernardo]]
[[Category:Diabetologists|Houssay]]
[[Category:Argentines of French descent|Houssay, Bernardo]]
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