Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2002

wo r k e d in the restaurant beside his parents, wh o wo r k ed 16 to 18 hours a day. His mother cared for the tenants of the building, many of w h om were old, preparing their meals wh en they were sick. From her Prof. Mu r ad learned compassion, and this influenced his choice of medicine as a career. From his father he learned about business and systematic analysis, and these too seemed to have played a part in Prof. Mu r a d 's career, i n w h i c h research project management and fund-raising have been so important. Prof. Mu r a d 's career goals were f i r m early in life. He wrote an essay in the eighth grade putting d o wn as his first three choices, physician, teacher and pharmacist. ‘Today I do just that,' he says, ‘as I am a board certified physician and internist doing both basic and clinical research w i t h considerable teaching i n me d i c i n e, p h a r ma c o l o gy a nd c l i n i c al pharmacology.' After completing high school he became the first member of his extended f a m i l y to enter college w h e n he w o n a scholarship to DePauw University, a small liberal arts u n i v e r s i ty i n Indiana. Here he became a p r e m ed ma j o r, a nd w h e n he graduated in 1958 he applied to an innovative MD - P hD p r o g r amme at Western Reserve U n i v e r s i ty i n C l e v e l a n d, Oh i o. A f t er an i n t e r v i ew by the w h o l e P h a r m a c o l o gy Department, he was awarded full tuition and a stipend of $2000 per year. Entering the new programme at Western Reserve set Prof. M u r a d on the course that w o u l d lead to his ground-breaking research of the 1970s. Under the mentorship of Earl Sutherland Jr. and Theodore Rall he was set to wo rk on the role of the cyclic AMP molecule as a cell messenger. ‘This w o r k ,' he says, ‘subsequently influenced my desire to w o r k w i t h cyclic GMP as described i n my Nobel lecture.' This was an e x c i t i ng t i me to be participating in a new and r ap i d ly g r ow i ng area of biology, and it was here that he came to love the life of research. His mentors were visionary in d r aw i ng together researchers of many disciplines in a way that produced new data. A t the same time, Prof. Mu r ad undertook Western Reserve's experimental integrated organ-system approach to medical education. He f o u nd that, because of his simultaneous Ph.D. wo r k, he approached every aspect of his medical training w i t h a sense of genuine i nqu i ry because he realized that every piece of knowledge could have research significance. Me a nwh i le Prof. M u r a d had ma r r i ed Carol and had started a family. To make ends meet he had to moonlight at the Cleveland Clinic, working one or two nights a week in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology service, assisting at deliveries and Caesarian sections and scrubbing tables and floors after each delivery. For the 12 hours' wo rk from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. he earned $20 per night. Then he wo u ld often have a full day of classes the next day. He was absent from his family as often as 4 or 5 nights a week, t h o u gh he tried to have dinner at home as frequently as possible. That the children have turned out well in spite of his absence, he says, is a tribute to the mothering of Carol. I n 1965-67 he d i d his i n t e r n s h ip and r e s i den cy i n me d i c i ne at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he met some of the wo r l d 's leading medical scientists, teachers and clinicians. He missed research, however, and soon took u p an appointment as a clinical associate at N I H in the Heart Institute, where he w o r k ed for three years. In 1970 he was recruited by the Un i v e r s i ty of V i r g i n ia to d e v e l op a n ew C l i n i c al P h a r m a c o l o gy Division in the Department of Medicine. Here he began his important w o r k on cyclic GMP as a possible n ew ‘second messenger' to mediate hormone effects. The experiments that w o n h i m the Nobel Prize were done at Virginia. In 1971 he became director of the C l i n i c al Research Center there; i n 1973 Director of Clinical Pharmacology and in 1975 he became one of the youngest full professors at the University. He remained at V i r g i n ia u n t il 1980. As he looks back on these highly p r o d u c t i ve years i n w h i c h he b u i lt u p a research programme w i t h clinical and basic medical studies, he sees the 82 students and fellows he wo r k ed w i t h and trained as among his greatest achievements. Of these some 20 are n ow professors, c h a i r me n, research directors a nd d i v i s i on chiefs a r o u nd the wo r l d. ‘There is no question,' he says, ‘that one of my greatest accomplishments is to 4 2 Chinese University Bulletin Autumn • Winter 2002