Earl W. Sutherland, Jr.:
Sutherland
began his research studying how the hormone epinephrine signals cells to release
more sugar into the blood so that an organism can respond to stress. He discovered
that epinephrine works by stimulating another chemical messenger to begin the
sugar-releasing process in the cell. He called this intermediary the "second
messenger." For more information about the second messenger, see the section
in this exhibit "Rodbell's Inspiration:
Sutherland's Second Messenger."
Earl Sutherland was born in Burlingame, Kansas on November 19, 1915. He received
his M.S. from Washington University, School of Medicine in St. Louis in 1942,
where he became a well-known teacher and researcher in the areas of pharmacology
and biochemistry. He later was a professor and department director at the Western
Reserve University, School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio and Vanderbilt University,
School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. He served on the National Institutes
of Health Pharmacology Training Committee, and Arthritis and Metabolic Disease
Program Committee. Sutherland's impact was widely felt, with many Nobel laureates
having either trained under his direction or with mentors who had. For more
information about Sutherland and his work, see www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1971.