Background
Schwartz, Jean-Charles was born on May 28, 1936 in Paris. Son of Paul and Louise (Etkovskaite) Schwartz.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Jean-Charles Schwartz
Edit Profile
Jean-Charles Schwartz, French pharmacist, educator. Recipient Lilly award European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 1994. Member Institute University of France, French National Academy of Sciences (correspondent, Grand Prix des Science Chimiques et Biologique 1983, Charles Leopold Mayer prize 1992), Academia Europea.
Education
Diploma in pharmacy, Paris University, 1960. Diploma in science, Paris University, 1963. Doctor of Science, Paris University, 1965.
Career
He later went on to develop pitolisant, the first clinically approved antagonist for H3 receptors. In the 1970s, the list of known neurotransmitters, formerly limited to acetylcholine and the catecholamines, began to grow rapidly. One of the newly added members, histamine, interested Schwartz.
He noted the many similarities between histamine and the catecholamines, and was uncomfortable with one of the differences.
Namely, that the catecholamines had autoreceptors while histamine had none. Schwartz designed an experiment involving radioactive histamine located inside neurons on rat cerebral cortical tissue.
When these tissues were stimulated, histamine was released. However, if nonradioactive histamine was added to the tissue, less radioactive histamine was released.
This pointed towards the possibility of the presence of histamine autoreceptors.
Schwartz performed additional tests, and then compared his results to the previously known H1 and H2 receptors. He found that neither of the known dose-response curves for these two receptors matched the ones he had foundation Schwartz concluded he must have discovered a new histamine receptor, the H3 receptor.
Achievements
Membership
Member Institute University of France, French National Academy of Sciences (correspondent, Grand Prix des Science Chimiques et Biologique 1983, Charles Leopold Mayer prize 1992), Academia Europea.
Connections
Married Ketty Gersen, March 31, 1960. Children: Olivier, Marc, Emmanuelle.
