1977 - ½ prize, jointly to Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally

It has long been known that the brain can modulate hormone producing glands in the body. Chemical substances are transported via delicate blood vessels from the hypothalamus in the midbrain to the pituitary (hypophysis), a hormone producing gland in the brain. The pituitary secretes specific peptide hormones which transfer the information to the other endocrine glands in the body. Guillemin and Schally worked independently trying to isolate the hormones secreted from the midbrain to the pituitary. Each started with half a ton (five million pieces taken from the midbrain of sheep and pigs) and after years of arduous labor, each came up with 1 milligram of purified hormonal substance called TRF. They were the first to isolate several of the communicating chemical links (termed "releasing factors or hormones", RF or RH) between the brain and the pituitary. They also determined their structure and succeeded in synthesizing them.