Bernardo Alberto Houssay

Argentine physiologist

• Born: April 10, 1887
• Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Died: September 21, 1971
• Place of death: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Houssay was the first South American to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was awarded the prize in 1947 for his discovery of the relation between the pancreas and the pituitary gland. This critical work paved the way for further studies of diabetes.

Early Life

Born in Buenos Aires, Bernardo Alberto Houssay (ew-SI) was the son of Alberto Houssay and Clara Laffont. His parents had emigrated to Argentina from France in 1870, and they were married in 1879. Alberto Houssay was a practicing attorney, who also taught literature at the National College of Buenos Aires. He was a well-read man with a love of the classics and a remarkable memory. One of eight children (four girls and four boys), Bernardo was something of a prodigy, completing his secondary school studies by the age of thirteen. Because of his age (and perhaps because his three older brothers had been educated in Europe), it was necessary for Bernardo to obtain special permission from the principal to enter the Colegio Britanico in Buenos Aires. It was at this time that Bernardo announced to his father his intention to pay all of his own expenses. Bernardo had obtained a post at the dispensary of a hospital and throughout his college career worked as a pharmacist in various hospital clinics. In this way, he became accustomed to the austere lifestyle that he practiced the rest of his life. In 1904, at the age of seventeen, he received his degree in pharmacy. In 1907, he was appointed to the faculty of medicine at the University of Buenos Aires as a laboratory assistant in physiology. He was awarded a doctorate in medicine in 1910 and became certified as a physician in 1911. Initially choosing internal medicine as his field of study, he entered the medical department at Alvear Hospital in Buenos Aires. He became chief physician of a ward at the hospital in 1913. Houssay later resigned this post to dedicate his full attention to physiological research.

Houssay was a severe and exacting taskmaster who demanded more of himself than of others. Physically he was a small man, five feet nine inches tall and less than 150 pounds. He spoke French and English fluently.

Houssay was married to Maria Angelica Catan, herself a doctor of chemistry, on December 22, 1920. The couple had three sons, Alberto Bernardo, Hector Emilio José, and Raul Horacio, all of whom went on to earn medical degrees of their own. Maria, who, in Houssay’s words, had always been “an efficient and unostentatious helpmate,” died on March 12, 1962.

Life’s Work

Until 1915, Houssay headed the physiology section at the University of Buenos Aires, when he was named laboratory chief of the Bacteriological Institute of the National Department of Hygiene. From 1910 to 1919, Houssay, a professor of physiology on the faculty of agronomy and veterinary medicine, taught classes at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1919, Houssay was given the chair of physiology on the faculty of medicine at the university. He held this post until his ouster, for political reasons, in 1943. During this period, Houssay established a laboratory for the study of biological chemistry, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and experimental medicine. The laboratory soon became renowned in scientific circles, attracting students and scientists from around the world.

Houssay held a number of other posts, including, at the university, counselor of the faculty of medicine, vice dean, and member of the superior council of the university as well as being a member of the National Commission on Climatology and Mineral Waters and vice president of the Permanent Pharmacopoeia Commission.

Although Houssay did make important discoveries in his experiments on snake and spider venoms, his best-known work was with the pituitary gland. He performed a series of experiments on this gland from 1924 to 1937. He found that removing the anterior lobe of the pituitary made laboratory animals more sensitive to insulin and that subsequently adding anterior pituitary extract decreased insulin sensitivity. Through this series of tests, he showed that giving doses of the extract to normal animals could produce diabetes . Because diabetes is caused by a failure of the isles of Langerhans in the pancreas to produce enough insulin, Houssay’s discovery would prove crucial in the treatment of the once-fatal disease.

Houssay then revealed the relationships of many other organs in the body to the pituitary gland. He discovered that insulin, rather than effecting the oxidation of sugar, merely acted against chemicals from the pituitary or adrenal glands that block the effective burning of oxygen.

In 1943, Houssay was one of 150 educators who were dismissed from their posts by Argentina’s dictator Juan Perón for signing a petition opposing Argentina’s relationship with Nazi Germany and demanding a return to constitutional government in Argentina as well as solidarity with other American nations. Perón’s actions brought a public outcry and offers of university positions for Houssay from around the world. Not wishing to abandon his country in what he saw as its hour of need, Houssay remained in Buenos Aires and helped to establish the privately financed Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine, of which he became the director. In 1945, Perón’s actions were declared illegal, and Houssay was reinstated at the University of Buenos Aires, only to be asked to retire in 1946 for what were widely believed to be political reasons. Houssay’s popularity was evidenced by a subsequent boycott of physiology classes by many students and the resignations of many staff members of various Argentine universities. In 1955, Perón was exiled, and Houssay was reinstated at the university by the revolutionary government.

Physiologie humaine (1950; Human Physiology , 1955) was the first Latin American scientific work to be translated into English for worldwide distribution; it was hailed as the finest physiology text then written. Houssay published many books dealing with scientific and educational topics, his first being a doctoral thesis in 1916. More than fifty papers on medical studies of snake, spider, and scorpion venoms have appeared in his name, and more than five hundred scientific papers and several books containing his discoveries, including those regarding diabetes, have been published.

Houssay received many scientific honors during his life, including election to the National Academy of Sciences in Buenos Aires in 1937, receipt of the Charles Mickle Fellowship of Toronto in 1945, the Banting Medal of the American Diabetes Association in 1946, the research award of the American Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association in 1947, and the Baly Medal in 1947 from the Royal College of Physicians of London. He held honorary doctorates in medicine from, among others, the Universities of Paris, Montreal, Lyons, and Geneva. He held honorary doctorates in science from such universities as Harvard, São Paulo, and Oxford. He was named Hitchcock Professor of Physiology at the University of California, and he was one of the founders and onetime president of the Argentine Association for the Advancement of Science. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the part played by the hormone produced by the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland in the metabolism of sugar. He shared the prize with Carl F. Cori and Gerty T. Cori, whose works revealed the mechanism by which the hormone produces the above effect. Houssay died on September 21, 1971, at the age of eighty-four.

Significance

Houssay’s discoveries regarding diabetes mellitus were turning points in the treatment of the disease. His conclusions regarding the oxidation of sugar provided the key to possible insulin substitutes in the case of depleted supplies in the human body. These experiments also showed how the balance of opposing hormones can control specific types of metabolism.

Steeped as he was in scientific studies, the husband and father of other scientists, Houssay did not insulate himself from political and social concerns. When Houssay was awarded the Nobel Prize, the controlled Argentine press complained that it was a politically motivated act aimed at Perón. Houssay responded that one must not confuse small things, meaning Perón, with big things, meaning the Nobel Prize. Houssay later summarized his own code of belief: love of country, defense of freedom, respect for justice, and love of family and friends.

Houssay’s teachings instituted a new era in Argentine medicine. He was responsible for the initiation of modern scientific techniques, not only in Argentina but also around the world. He strongly advocated training students to achieve independent thought, fearing as he did the undue influence of propaganda on the young. He often preached the need for fundamental reform in Argentine education, affirming that a nation that does not contribute to scientific knowledge is a parasite. Throughout his lifetime, Houssay was well respected by both students and colleagues.

Bibliography

Aaseng, Nathan. The Disease Fighters: The Nobel Prize in Medicine. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner, 1987. Although this book gives no information on Houssay, it provides an overview of the history of the study of diabetes mellitus. Includes the discovery of insulin by Frederick G. Banting and Charles Best. Intended for younger readers but can be useful for older students as well. Contains a glossary and an index.

Bliss, Michael. The Discovery of Insulin. 3d pbk. ed. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2000. Discusses in detail the history of diabetes and the search for a cure. Describes the pathways of medical research that culminated in the discovery of insulin.

Cori, Carl Ferdinand, et al., eds. Perspectives in Biology: A Collection of Papers Dedicated to Bernardo A. Houssay on the Occasion of His Seventy-fifth Birthday. New York: Elsevier, 1963. This collection includes one of Houssay’s own papers a study of hair growth in mice. As a preface, the editors have included a lengthy biographical sketch of the scientist. College-level material.

Howard, John M., and Walter Hess. History of the Pancreas: Mysteries of the Hidden Organ. New York: Kluwer Academic, 2002. Written by two academic pancreatic surgeons, this history of studies of the pancreas from antiquity to contemporary times includes information on the discovery of insulin.

Ludovici, Laurence James, ed. Nobel Prize Winners. Westport, Conn.: Associated Booksellers, 1957. Gives biographies of fourteen well-known Nobel Prize winners, including such contemporaries of Houssay as Albert Einstein, Alexander Fleming, and Thomas Hunt Morgan. Helpful in placing Houssay’s life in historical context.

Roethe, Anna, ed. Current Biography: Who’s Who and Why, 1948. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1949. This annual publication provides detailed biographies of people in the news for the previous year. Written in clear language for general readers.

Sourkes, Theodore L. Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine and Physiology, 1901-1965. New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1966. Sixty-five years of Nobel Prize winners, their lives, and the works that won for them the award. Some of the material is somewhat technical, but the biographical information can be valuable to all.