Congratulations to Professor Christopher Haslett

May 2014: RSE/Sir James Black Medal awarded to Professor Christopher Haslett

Congratulations to Professor Christopher Haslett OBE FRSE FMedSci, on recieving the Sir James Black Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Professor Christopher Haslett, Director of the Queen’s Medical Research Institute and Sir John Crofton Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Edinburgh, has recieved the award for his outstanding contribution to inflammation research, the establishment of Scotland’s first large-scale interdisciplinary translational medicine research institute and the development of a novel system for optical imaging of inflammatory processes in humans.

Sir James Black (1924 – 2010) was a Scottish doctor and pharmacologist.  He established the physiology department at the University of Glasgow, where he became interested in the effects of adrenaline on the human heart.  In 1958 he went to work for ICI Pharmaceuticals where he developed two blockbuster drugs in different fields.  Firstly, the renowned “β-blocker” drugs which changed cardiovascular therapeutics beyond recognition.  He also had great success in another therapeutic area with the development of cimetidine, which selectively blocks the effects of histamine on the stomach and heart with minimal toxicity.  The design of these histamine H2 receptor blockers revolutionised the therapy of the peptic ulcer.  Sir James Black was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE).  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988, the Order of Merit in 2000, a Knighthood in 1981 and the RSE Royal Medal in 2001.

Further information on awards from the Royal Society of Edinburgh can be found on this link.