Andrew V. Schally

This is a beta version of NNDB

Andrew V. Schally

Andrew V. Schally AKA Andrzej Wiktor Schally

Born: 30-Nov-1926
Birthplace: Wilno, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania)

Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Scientist

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Hypothalamic hormones (brain peptides)

Andrew V. Schally won the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1977, for his research into peptide hormone production in the brain. He fled Poland with his family in 1939, and lived in Romania, Italy, France, England, Scotland, and Canada, before becoming an American at age 36. He studied interactions between the hypothalamus and the endocrine system, synthesized the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), isolated and synthesized the luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH), and researched somatostatin, the growth-hormone-inhibiting hormone. He also spent many years doing research funded by the U.S. Public Health Service and Veterans Administration, including several years as chief of endocrine and polypeptide laboratories at the VA Medical Center in New Orleans, and later became senior medical investigator for the VA.

In his early research, Schally worked with future Nobel laureates John Cornforth, Archer J. P. Martin, and Rodney R. Porter. He spent several years working alongside Roger Guillemin, but the two men later became cold-blooded competitors, a rivalry chronicled in the non-fiction best-seller The Nobel Duel. In a furious exchange of letters over the perception of credit denied at a seminar, Schally wrote to Guillemin, "Your somewhat derogatory and deprecating remarks ... surprised me as the attack on Pearl Harbor surprised the U.S. Navy," and Guillemin replied, "I am neither your conscience nor your psychiatrist." Each scientists' quest for victory over the other was dashed when they were awarded the Nobel Prize jointly, sharing that year's honors with a third scientist, Rosalyn Sussman Yalow.

Father: Kazimierz Piotr Schally (military officer)
Mother: Maria Lacka Schally
Sister: Halina Schally
Wife: Margaret Rachel White (div.)
Wife: Ana Maria de Medeiros-Comaru (endocrinologist)

High School: Beaconhurst School, Bridge of Allen, Scotland (1946)
University: Chemistry, University of London
Scholar: National Institute for Medical Research, London (1950-52)
University: BS Biochemistry, McGill University (1955)
University: PhD Endocrinology, McGill University (1957)
Teacher: Physiology, Baylor University (1957-62)
Scholar: Biochemistry, University of Uppsala (1961)
Teacher: Medicine, Tulane University (1962-66)
Professor: Medicine, Tulane University (1966-)

Lasker Award 1975
Nobel Prize for Medicine 1977 (with Roger Guillemin and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow)
Naturalized US Citizen 1962
Austrian Ancestry
French Ancestry
Jewish Ancestry
Hungarian Ancestry
Lithuanian Ancestry
Polish Ancestry
Swedish Ancestry

Author of books:
The Hypothalamus and Pituitary in Health and Disease (1972, with William Locke)

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile