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Nature 460, 47 (2 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/460047a; Published online 1 July 2009

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Obituary: Robert Furchgott (1916–2009)

Solomon H. Snyder1

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Nobel laureate who pioneered research into nitric oxide.

In 1992, Science heralded nitric oxide (NO) as 'molecule of the year', less than six years after it had been identified as a physiological dilator of blood vessels, accounting for the activity of a molecule known as endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). On 19 May 2009, Robert Furchgott, whose research was most influential in leading to the discovery that NO is EDRF, died peacefully in Seattle, Washington, aged 92.

  1. Solomon H. Snyder is in the Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
    Email: ssnyder@jhmi.edu