Louis Ignarro

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With the announcement of his Nobel Prize for his research with nitric oxide, Louis Ignarro became a leader in his field of pharmacology. But it was the overwhelming crowd of students, faculty and friends waiting to congratulate him when he returned from Italy that showed the full extent of his impact on the world of medicine.

As a member of the faculty at the Tulane School of Medicine, he began studying nitric oxide in 1978. Sparked by the curiosity of why nitroglycerin has been so effective in treating high blood pressure and chest pain, he eventually found that nitric oxide acts as an important signaling molecule to regulate essential functions of the human cardiovascular system. More then 20 years in development, Ignarro’s findings could potentially lead to treatments for heart disease, stroke, arteriosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and even cancer. In 1998, his work made him the first Nobel Laureate of the UCLA School of Medicine. He has also previously received two awards in the cardiovascular field, the Roussel Uclaf Prize in 1994 and the CIBA Award for Hypertension Research in 1995.

Perhaps his greatest achievement, however, is winning 10 Golden Apple Awards, the largest number ever given by UCLA medical students to their favorite professors in basic sciences. A dedicated and effective teacher, Ignarro has put as much into his students as he has into his research.