Curious discovery of nitric oxide's role in vascular health

Some of the world's brightest minds gathered in Singapore from Jan 6 to 10 to mingle with and inspire over 340 young researchers at the annual Global Young Scientists Summit. The Straits Times speaks to these prominent scientists about their work and what drives them.

- Judith Tan

Never overlook the small things, said Nobel Prize winner Louis Ignarro.

It was this approach to science that led Professor Ignarro to discover how nitric oxide, a gaseous chemical in both the earth's atmosphere and in human cells, could be used in medications to treat not only heart and cardiovascular diseases, but also impotence.

It is no wonder that Prof Ignarro, now 83, is sometimes called "the father of Viagra". His experiments with nitric oxide in the 1990s found that the compound is the one that transmits signals in the body for erectile function.

His research showed that nitric oxide widens blood vessels and increases blood flow.

He was not directly involved in the development of Viagra, nor was he paid royalties for the sale of the drug.

Prof Ignarro said it was the late American physician and pharmacologist Ferid Murad who discovered that nitric oxide can increase the levels of another signalling molecule in cells.

"(We found that something) was depressing the cells, but we did not understand why. Then I recalled the statement that Albert Einstein once made: 'If we knew what it was that we were doing, it would not be called research.' A lot of research continued after this to figure that out," he explained.