The Prize Committee for Medicine has unanimously decided that the Wolf Foundation Prize for 1982 should be equally divided among:
Jean Pierre Changeux
Institut Pasteur
Paris, France
for the isolation, purification and characterization of the acetylcholine receptor.
Solomon H. Snyder
Johns Hopkins University Medical School
Baltimore, Maryland., USA
for the development of the ways to label neurotransmitter receptors, which provide tools to describe their properties.
Sir James W. Black
Wellcome Research Laboratories
Beckenham, Kent, United Kingdom
for developing agents which block beta adrenergic and histamine receptors.
Receptor sites in cell membranes are recognized to have cardinal importance in many physiological and pathological processes. Our three prize winners have each made notable contributions in this area.
Jean Pierre Changeux provided a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cholinergic neurotransmission, and the functional pathology of neurological disorders such as myasthenia gravis.
The contribution of Solomon H. Snyder made possible clearer insight into brain function, the mechanisms of the action of neuropsychotherapeutic agents, and the characterization of opiate receptors and their ligands.
The agents developed by Sir James W. Black have been widely and effectively used in the treatment of hypertension, angina pectoris and peptic ulceration.