Dr. Louis Ignarro Honored as 2008 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist

PRLog (Press Release) – Nov 18, 2008 – The American Heart Association (AHA) has selected UCLA professor Louis J. Ignarro as a 2008 Distinguished Scientist. The award was presented at the 2008 Scientific Session, Nov 8-12 2008, in New Orleans.

The AHA gives its annual Distinguished Scientist Award to outstanding scientists who have made significant contributions towards the advancement of understanding and prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Dr. Ignarro’s research was critical in the development of drugs and supplements that utilize Nitric Oxide (NO) as a vasodilator in order to reduce or prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular disease. His research has led to the development of drugs such as Viagra and Cialis as well as his own NO-based heart health regimen, as outlined in his 2005 bestseller NO More Heart Disease.

Dr. Ignarro was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1998 for his research into NO’s role as a signaling molecule. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Louis Ignarro has also received numerous other special awards for his research, including the Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association, the CIBA Award for Hypertension Research and the Roussel Uclaf Prize for Cell Communication and Signaling. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has published over 500 scholarly articles in his career.

Dr. Ignarro is currently a distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine’s Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology in Los Angeles where he continues to research the benefits of Nitric Oxide and its role as a signaling molecule. He is the founder of the Nitric Oxide Society, and founder and editor-in-chief of “Nitric Oxide Biology and Chemistry.” Dr. Ignarro holds a B.S. in Pharmacology, Columbia University, 1962, and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology, University of Minnesota, 1966.