Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH: A short history

The Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology (LCP) began in 1950 as the Section of Pharmacology within the National Heart Institute, the National Institute s of Health. Its first chief was Bernard B. Brodie, considered by many to b e one of the fathers of modern pharmacology. Since its inception, LCP has m ade many significant contributions to the fields of pharmacology and toxico logy. LCP was among the first to study (a) the effects of drugs on the turn over of serotonin and norepineprine in brain and other tissues, (b) the abs orption of drugs from the gastrointestinal tract and their passage across t he blood-brain barrier, (c) the oxidation and reduction of drugs and other foreign compounds by liver microsomal enzymes (later known as the cytochrom e P450 enzymes) and inhibitors and inducers of these enzymes, (d) the forma tion of toxic chemically reactive metabolites of drugs and other foreign co mpounds, and (e) mechanisms of immunological responses. Approximately 300 s cientists worked in LCP during its existence, and they and their collaborat ors published more than 1,300 papers. This is a short history of the people who worked in it and of their contributions to biomedical sciences.