Louis Sanford Goodman (August 27, 1906 – November 19, 2000) was an American pharmacologist. He is best known for his collaborations with Alfred Gilman, Sr., with whom he authored the popular textbook ''

The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics ''Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics'', commonly referred to as the Blue Bible or Goodman & Gilman, is a textbook of pharmacology originally authored by Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman. First published in 1941, the ...

'' in 1941 and pioneered the first chemotherapy trials using

nitrogen mustard Nitrogen mustards are cytotoxic organic compounds with the chloroethylamine (Cl(CH2)2NR2) functional group. Although originally produced as chemical warfare agents, they were the first chemotherapeutic agents for treatment of cancer. Nitrogen m ...

Life and career

Goodman was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

in 1906 and received his B.A. from

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

in 1928 and an M.D. from the

University of Oregon Medical School Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medi ...

in 1932. After interning at

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...

, he joined the

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...

faculty, where he met Alfred Gilman. They began teaching pharmacology courses together and began to develop a textbook, which was published as ''The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics'' in 1941. While at Yale, Goodman and Gilman were assigned a government contract in

research in 1942. With knowledge that the compound depleted white blood cells, the pharmacologists experimented with intravenous injections on a terminally ill

lymphosarcoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...

patient in

Gustaf Lindskog Gustaf Elmer Lindskog (7 February 1903 – 4 August 2002) was a thoracic surgeon and the William H. Carmalt Professor of Surgery and chair of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, best known for having participated in the first pharmaceutical ...

's care. Though the tumor regenerated and killed the patient, the drug's success in briefly eliminating the tumor is considered a historic accomplishment in chemotherapy treatment, and the compound is still used as a chemotherapeutic agent. Goodman was appointed an assistant professor at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...

in 1937, and became its chair of pharmacology and physiology in 1943. Then, in 1944, he moved to Salt Lake City to found a department of pharmacology at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

College of Medicine. There, Goodman demonstrated that the paralysis induced by

curare Curare ( /kʊˈrɑːri/ or /kjʊˈrɑːri/; ''koo-rah-ree'' or ''kyoo-rah-ree'') is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South ...

was temporary, which he did by injecting a colleague with the relaxant. Goodman retired in 1971 and remained in Salt Lake City for the remainder of his life, continuing to teach at the College of Medicine. He died on November 19, 2000, at the age of 94.

Personal life

Goodman married Helen Ricen in 1934, and they had two daughters, Carolyn and Debora. He is survived by his grandchildren, Jonathan, Rebecca, Miriam and Jacob and great grandson Leo Goodman Liggins.

Awards and honors

Goodman was elected to the

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 ...

in 1965.

References

External links

The Louis S. Goodman audio-visual collection 1968–1980
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Louis American pharmacologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1906 births 2000 deaths Scientists from Portland, Oregon Reed College alumni University of Oregon alumni Yale School of Medicine faculty University of Vermont faculty University of Utah faculty