Prof.Susan E.Leeman - Neuroendocrinologist who discovered Substance P & Neurotensin

Susan E.Leeman

Professor Susan E.Leeman is the Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, and the Director of the Neuropeptide Laboratory in the Pharmacology Department at the Boston University School of Medicine,USA. In 1974 Dr.Leeman discovered the structure of Substance P – a peptide whose discovery won Ulf von Euler the Nobel Prize in 1970.

She also discovered another peptide, neurotensin. Dr. Leeman’s laboratory not only achieved the first isolation and chemical characterization of the peptides substance P and neurotensin but also able to characterize the full length and truncated receptors for substance P, and recognized that the differences in their lengths lead to their differences in their intracellular signaling pathways. More recently, she has been interested in pharmacological intervention in inflammatory responses with particular emphasis on the role of these 2 peptides in immune cells. She and colleagues have recently demonstrated that truncated neurokinin-1 receptor is increased in colonic epithelial cells from patients with colitis-associated cancer. Prof.Leeman is considered one of the founders of the field of neuroendocrinology in the world.

Professor Leeman became the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences in physiology and pharmacology in 1991. It is really unfortunate that Leeman missed the Nobel Prize in spite of her name being nominated !

Susan E.Leeman (2008)

Professor Susan Leeman is the Editorial Adviser (Pharmacology) of "BLDE University Journal of Health Sciences" .