Daniel Bovet was a Swiss born Italian pharmacologist who was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1957. He is the fifth Italian who has won this prize awarded from 1901. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded annually at a formal ceremony on December 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Karolinska Institute awards it.

Birth and education
Daniel Bovet was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland on March 23, 1907. His father Pierre Bovet was a Professor of Pedagogy and Experimental Education at the University of Geneva and his mother was called Amy Babut. He was one of four children. He was one among the few who had learnt Esperanto as a first language. After completing his schooling in Geneva he joined the University of Geneva and studied biology. He graduated in 1927. He spent a few years as an Assistant in Physiology to Professor F. Batelli. Later he worked under Professor Guyenot under whom he spent time preparing a thesis in zoology and anatomy for which he was awarded a D.Sc. in 1929.

Move to Paris
After obtaining his D.Sc. Daniel Bovet began work at the Pasteur Institute in Paris from 1929 to 1947. He first worked as an assistant under the direction of Professor E. Roux. After a few years in 1937 he became the Chief of the Laboratory of Therapeutic Chemistry. Professor Ernest Fourneau was the Director of this department. Day to day contact with the professor helped Daniel Bovet to determine the course of his future research. In 1933 he and Fourneau discovered piperoxan the first antihistamine.

Move to Italy
In 1947 Professor Domenico Marotta, Director of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, (Chief Institute of Public Health), Rome invited him to Italy to set up a Laboratory of Therapeutic Chemistry at his institute in Rome. Bovet accepted this invitation and joined the Institute becoming the Chief of the Laboratory of Therapeutic Chemistry of the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome. He remained here for several years conducting a lot of path breaking research. In 1964 he left Institute to become a Professor of pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sassari, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. From 1969 until 1971 he was the Head of the Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology Laboratory of the National Research Council (CNR) in Rome. In 1971 he became a Professor of Psychobiology at the University of Rome La Sapienza. He retired in 1982. He became an honorary professor after his retirement.

His research
In the early 1930’s Bovet and his coworkers conducted a series of experiments on Prontosil, a dye that had been discovered by the German biochemist Gerhard Domagk. They concluded that Prontosil derived its therapeutic powers due to the presence of sulphanilamide. It was easy and inexpensive to produce sulphanilamide unlike Prontosil. They mass- produced it and it has helped to save many lives. Bovet continued his studies on sulphanilamide and its derivatives. He made sulfa drugs a practical and commercial reality.

As early as 1937 Bovet and his research student Anne Marie Staub succeeded in synthesizing the first antihistamine, called thymoxidiethylamine. An antihistamine is a substance that blocks the neurotransmitter histamine. Antihistamines are drugs used for treating allergy reactions caused by the naturally occurring organic compound histamine, which is made from the amino acid histidine. In 1932 it had been established that histamines were the causative agents of allergic reactions .The first antihistamine discovered by Bovet was too toxic to be used so he continued with hundreds of experiments to find a more human body friendly antihistamine. After years of research he succeeded in discovering pyrilamine (mepyramine) a very important histamine. In 1944 it was introduced to the public. It is used to counteract the effect of histamine and is effective against allergic reactions. Bovet’s work on antihistamines laid the foundation of safe and effective synthesis of them. Much work has subsequently been carried out on antihistamine research thanks to his initial and fundamental discoveries.

In 1947 he discovered gallamine and other muscle relaxants when he was looking for a synthetic substitute for curare. Curare is a neuro-paralyzing drug that works on nerve endings blocking the transmission of nerve impulses. It is a muscle relaxant and derived naturally from plants native to South America. In small quantities it is used in surgery synergistically with anaesthesia but in large quantities it can be toxic. Bovet and his coworkers studied curare and ergot for years. He was the first person to discover the curare like action of the derivatives of succinylcholine. Curare and its synthetic derivatives are currently used in conjunction with mild anaesthesia during surgery to induce muscle relaxation. These compounds have been the forerunners in the evolution of modern surgery. They have made possible more and more complicated medical surgery, which often requires almost total muscular relaxation. Although these compounds have not as yet found any application in general medicine there may be hope that with future research sympatholytic compounds may be of value in treating hypertension and other vascular conditions.

In psychiatry curare has made obsolete electric shock treatment. This has been very useful for humankind because electric shock treatment was a devastating treatment causing spasmodic contractions due to electrical stimulation and it also often caused fracture of bones.

In his later years Bovet studied the effects of various chemicals on the central nervous system. He wished to discover more about the relationship between chemistry and mental illness. He also conducted a lot of studies on the effects of mental illness on the chemistry of the brain. His observations on neuropharmacology have had a stimulating effect on psychopharmacology with the ergot alkaloids showing a lot of promise for future research. His work on biological amines may hold a clue to future developments in this field as it is being found out that minute quantities of simple chemicals can modify the mental state. This research is fascinating and though it may sound a little frightening too it may also be the means for fighting the scourges of mental illness.

Publications
Daniel Bovet was a prolific writer .He has published over three hundred papers on biology, general pharmacology, pharmacology of the sympathetic nervous system and of the central nervous system (drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease, strychnine and tranquillizers). He has also written papers on sulphonamide drugs, the synthesis of anti-histamines, on curare and curare like drugs and the use of curare as an adjuvant to anaesthesia. He also wrote papers on allergy reactions and on various modifications of hormonal balance. He has written numerous works on microbiology, toxicology and endocrinology.

In 1948 he published a book with his wife as a co-author titled Structure chimique et activite pharmacodynamique des medicaments du systeme nerveux vegetatif (the chemical structure and pharmodynamic activity of the drugs of the vegetative nervous system). In 1959 he published Curare and Curare-like Agents with his wife and G.B. Marini- Bettolo. These books dealt with all the important aspects of research he had carried out independently and jointly with his wife.

Honorary degrees
Bovet has received honorary degrees from many prestigious Universities around the world including Palermo, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva, Montpellier, Paris, Nancy, Prague and Strasbourg.

Honours
In 1946 Bovet was elected as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour of France. In 1959 he was made a Grand Official of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Awards
In 1934 he received the Plantamour Prize of the Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva. In 1936 he received the Martin Damourette Prize of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France. In 1941 he was awarded the General Muteau Prize of the Italian Academy of Science. In 1949 he was bestowed the Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In the same year he also received the Burgi Prize from the Faculty of Medicine in Berne, Switzerland. In 1952 he received the Addingham Gold Medal from the University of Leeds. In 1949 he and his wife Filomena Bovet Nitti were jointly awarded the E. Paterno Prize. In 1951 they were honoured with the Scientific Illustration Prize of the Italian National Research Council.

He is a member of many Academic societies all over the world in countries as diverse as Italy. India, France, Great Britain, Brazil, the USA and Argentina.

The Nobel Prize
In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles. He did a lot of pioneering work on the development of antihistamines, sulpha drugs, curare derivatives and other muscle relaxants which are used in surgery,

Personal life
In 1931 Daniel Bovet married Filomena Nitti a fellow scientist and sister of the famous bacteriologist F. Nitti. They had met at the Pasteur Institute in France. She has worked alongside with him and has constantly supported him in his research activities and in his various publications and books. They had three children. In 1947 he took Italian citizenship.

Death
Daniel Bovet died on April 8, 1992. His pioneering work in pharmacology and psychopharmacology remains for the benefit of future generations.