Bernard Beryl Brodie (7 August 1907 – 28 February 1989) was an English scientist. A leading researcher on drug therapy, he is considered by many to be the founder of modern

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

and brought the field to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s. He was a major figure in the field of drug metabolism, the study of how drugs interact in the body and how they are absorbed. A member of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, Brodie was a founder and former chief of the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology at the

National Heart Institute The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) is the third largest Institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. It is tasked with allocating about $3.6 billion in FY 2020 in tax revenue to ...

of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

Early life and education

Born in Liverpool in 1907, to a Jewish family Brodie did his undergraduate work at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

and received a Ph.D. in chemistry at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1935. After his graduation from N.Y.U., he was an associate professor there until 1950, when he joined the National Institutes of Health. He headed the pharmacology laboratory there until his retirement in 1970 but remained active as a senior consultant with

Hoffmann-LaRoche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...

laboratories in

Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143. What is now Nutley was originally incorporated as Franklin Township by an act of the New Jersey Legisla ...

and as a professor of pharmacology at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

Research

His most significant discovery was that animal and human responses to drugs do not differ significantly. This pioneered the concept that blood drug levels must guide therapeutic dosages and he established the basis for the

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

. Together with

Julius Axelrod Julius Axelrod (May 30, 1912 – December 29, 2004) was an American biochemist. He won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 along with Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler. The Nobel Committee honored him for his work on the re ...

, he discovered that

acetanilide Acetanilide is an odourless solid chemical of leaf or flake-like appearance. It is also known as ''N''-phenylacetamide, acetanil, or acetanilid, and was formerly known by the trade name Antifebrin. Preparation and properties Acetanilide can be ...

and

phenacetin Phenacetin (acetophenetidin, ''N''-(4-ethoxyphenyl)acetamide) is a pain-relieving and fever-reducing drug, which was widely used following its introduction in 1887. It was withdrawn from medicinal use as dangerous from the 1970s (e.g., withdrawn ...

both metabolize to

paracetamol Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain. Common brand names include Tylenol and Panadol. At a standard dose, paracetamol only slightly decreases body temperature; it is inferior ...

. Unlike its precursors, paracetamol does not cause

methemoglobinemia Methemoglobinemia, or methaemoglobinaemia, is a condition of elevated methemoglobin in the blood. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, poor muscle coordination, and blue-colored skin (cyanosis). Complications m ...

in humans. Brodie also did research on anesthetic and hypnotic drugs and discovered that

procainamide Procainamide (PCA) is a medication of the antiarrhythmic class used for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. It is classified by the Vaughan Williams classification system as class Ia; thus it is a sodium channel blocker of cardiomyocytes. In add ...

was effective in treating patients with severe irregularities in heart rhythm. He also pioneered a drug therapy for gout. Brodie was the first scientist to determine how the neurohormones,

serotonin Serotonin () or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Its biological function is complex and multifaceted, modulating mood, cognition, reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes such as vomiting and vas ...

and

norepinephrine Norepinephrine (NE), also called noradrenaline (NA) or noradrenalin, is an organic chemical in the catecholamine family that functions in the brain and body as both a hormone and neurotransmitter. The name "noradrenaline" (from Latin '' ad'', ...

, affect the functioning of the brain, thereby leading to an understanding of how anti-psychotic drugs could be used effectively in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders. He also proposed a new line of attack on

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

, leading to studies of how nerve impulses in the brain are transmitted along particular pathways of the nerve cells. His scientific career was the basis of a recent popular biography, ''Apprentice to Genius'' by Robert Kanigel, which describes how a group of scientists, headed by Brodie, made prize-winning breakthroughs in biomedical science over a period of 40 years.

Awards

In 1967, Brodie received the

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 5 ...

for his more than 30 years of extraordinary contributions to biochemical pharmacology. His work had a profound influence on the use of drugs in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, mental and emotional disorders and cancer. Brodie was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1966 and held honorary memberships in numerous scientific academies both in the United States and abroad. In addition to the Lasker Award, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1958, the Tollman award in Pharmacology in 1963, the National Medal of Science in 1968, and the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in 1970. He was the author or co-author of more than 350 scientific manuscripts. The neuroscience department of the

University of Cagliari The University of Cagliari ( it, Università degli Studi di Cagliari) is a university in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It was founded in 1606 and is organized in 11 faculties. History The ''Studium Generalis Kalaritanum'' was founded in 1606 alon ...

was named in his honour by a former student,

Gian Luigi Gessa Gian Luigi Gessa is a professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at the University of Cagliari, where he has led for a long time the Department of Neurosciences. He is the leader of the Italian group that studies drug addiction. He also directed the r ...

. Brodie died in 1989 in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

at the age of 81.

Family

Bernard Brodie was a brother of polio researcher

Maurice Brodie Maurice Brodie (1903–1939) was a British-born American virologist who developed a polio vaccine in 1935. Early years and education Brodie was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Samuel Broude and Esther Ginsburg. The family immigrated to Otta ...

.Dr. Bernard Brodie honored in US. Ottawa Journal 3 April 1940

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brodie, Bernard 1989 deaths American biochemists Jewish American scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences New York University alumni McGill University alumni Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research 1907 births People from Liverpool People in health professions from Merseyside 20th-century American Jews Members of the National Academy of Medicine