Ferid Murad

When molecular biologist Ferid Murad and colleagues first published their discoveries about the importance of nitric oxide in the body, the ideas were so unorthodox skeptics merely dismissed them.

Nearly three decades later, the work netted the group a Nobel Prize.

Murad shared details of the research with a standing room-only audience at the USC Institute for Genetic Medicine on Nov. 14, lecturing about "The Role of Nitric Oxide and Cyclic GMP in Cellular Signaling"­the discovery for which he shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The lecture was one in the series of distinguished lectureships in cardiovascular science sponsored by the Memorial Heart Research Foun-dation.

The lectureships, which take place twice a year, focus on the genetics behind heart disease.

Murad, the John S. Dunn Sr. Distinguished Chair in Physiology and Medicine at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, discussed the intricacies of the experiments that earned him and two colleagues science's highest honor. Their discovery: that a simple gas called nitric oxide plays a crucial signaling role between cells.

Nitric oxide ­ colorless, odorless, toxic and short-lived, generally considered a pollutant ­ seemed an unlikely molecule to play any kind of primary biological role.

The researchers showed how nitric oxide stimulates cells to create more of a molecule inside themselves called cyclic GMP, a so-called second messenger that leads to physiological changes in cells and tissues.

They demonstrated how the body uses this mechanism to make blood vessels relax and widen, lowering blood pressure. In the process they explained, among other things, why the long-used drug nitroglycerine is effective in treating heart disease.

Proving that a dissolved gas carries messages between cells introduced a new principle in human biology. And further studies have shown that nitric oxide performs other important functions in many systems of the body, Murad said, and turns out to be used by almost every form of life on earth. In fact, he said, "there appear to be few biological processes that are not regulated by nitric oxide."

Murad is professor and chair of integrative biology and pharmacology and director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine for Prevention of Human Diseases.

He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Murad received the 1996 Albert and Mary Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.

The audience, packed into the IGM's Harkness Assembly room, listened intently to the Nobel laureate's hour-long lecture and followed up with a question-and-answer period.