Sir John (Robert) Vane

Biochemist, born in Tardebigg, Worcestershire, WC England, UK. He studied chemistry and pharmacology at Birmingham (1946) and Oxford universities, then taught at Yale (1953–5), the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in London (1955–61), and the University of London (1961–73). He was appointed group research and development director with the Wellcome Research Laboratories in Beckenham, Kent (1973–86), and under his guidance several important drugs were produced, including treatment for hypertension, anti-viral agents, anti-gout drugs, and muscle relaxants. He researched the chemistry of prostaglandins, and discovered a type that inhibits blood clots, as well as illuminating the operation of aspirin in treating pain. In 1986 he was invited to join St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and later established the William Harvey Research Institute, becoming director there. He retired in 1995 and after the merger of the Institute and Medical School (2000) he became honorary chairman of the charitable William Harvey Research Foundation. His awards include Fellow of the Royal Society (1974), and in 1982 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Bengt Samuelsson and Sune Bergström. In 1984 he was knighted for services to pharmaceutical science.

He held a post at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences of the University of London in the Royal College of Surgeons of England for 18 years.

In 1973, Vane left academia and took up the position of director of research of the Wellcome Foundation. Twelve years later, however, he returned to academic life at the William Harvey Research Institute at St. Bartholmew's Hospital Medical School.