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Born on this Day Sending Signals
09 June 2013

Sending Signals

Paying attention to our surroundings is an ability harnessed in the pathways of a key chemical made by our nervous system. Acetylcholine, which transmits signals across the junctions between nerves and muscles, also helps us respond to our environment with movement. First discovered a hundred years ago in a fungus by Sir Henry Hallett Dale – born on this day in 1875 – the chemical has since unwittingly yielded significant medical insight and benefit. Different levels of this neurotransmitter are now accepted to account for the memory deficits suffered by patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Dale won a joint Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1936. He pioneered the first Therapeutic Substances Act of 1925, a big step in making drug treatment a safe and viable pursuit.

Written by Brona McVittie

  • Oil painting, H Wilson after Sir James Gunn
  • Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND); Courtesy of Wellcome Library, London

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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