Nobel Prize Winner Ferid Murad '58 to Deliver Ubben Lecture at His Alma Mater Today

April 23, 1999, Greencastle, Ind. - An Indiana native and DePauw University graduate who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in medicine will make his first visit back to Indiana since receiving the Nobel Prize. Dr. Ferid Murad, who grew up in Whiting, Indiana, and graduated from DePauw in 1958, will give The Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture at his alma mater today at 11 a.m. in DePauw's Performing Arts Center, Kresge Auditorium. The title of his speech is "Discovery of Cellular Signaling with Nitric Oxide." It is open and free to the public.

Dr. Murad is chairman of the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and also director of The Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases.

Murad was one of three researchers awarded the Nobel Prize on October 12, 1998 in recognition of their work for discovering that nitric oxide functions as a signal molecule in the cardiovascular system. The discovery was key to the development of Viagra, the anti-impotence drug, and has potential applications for the treatment of heart disease and other illnesses. All three researchers worked on the properties of nitric oxide, a gas that transmits signals from one cell to another. Murad analyzed how nitroglycerin and related compounds act. Murad and his fellow researchers from the State University of New YorkBrooklyn and University of California-Los Angeles shared the $978,000 awarded with the Nobel Prize.

Murad's speech is in conjunction with the beginning of the Celebration of the Percy Julian Centennial at DePauw. A 1920 graduate of DePauw, Julian was an internationally known black chemist whose discoveries included the synthesis of the glaucoma drug physostigmine and the improved production of cortisone.

To view a complete roster of Ubben Lecturers, which includes links to video clips and news stories, click here.

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