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Introduction
Humans
have constantly searched for effective and safe relief from pain. One
pain reliever, used from antiquity, has been opium derived from poppy
plants. In the nineteenth century, the pain killers morphine, codeine,
and thebaine were isolated from opium. Morphine and codeine quickly became
important medicines for treating pain, cough, and diarrhea. This exhibit
tells how 20th century researchers at the National Institutes of Health
created new opiate drugs and developed a synthetic source for morphine
and codeine -- and why.
The Drug Design and Synthesis Section of the Laboratory of Medicinal
Chemistry (LMC) is part of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive
and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Its mission is to identify the structure
and function of chemical messenger systems in the brain and to determine
how drugs, especially opium, affect the brain on a molecular level.
In the photo below are: seated in the first row Ross Johnson, Marina
Mattson, Kenner Rice, Margaret Aein, Arthur Jacobson. Standing in the
middle Row are: Dorota Mateka, Neil Grayson, Guerdy Toussaint, Lilian
Radesca, Celia Dominguez, Zi-Qiang Gu, Brian de Costa. Standing in
the third and final row are: Dragona Tadic, Wanda Williams, Xiao-Shu
He, Dorothea Thomasson, Jan Linders, Wayne Bowen, John Glowa, Bertold
Vilner. (December 1991).
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Credits
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