Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: October 12, 1998

UT System News Release

Murad is 7th Nobel Laureate in the U.T. System

AUSTIN - With the announcement Monday that Dr. Ferid Murad of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, there are now seven Nobel Laureates within the 15-campus U.T. System.

Dr. Murad is the third faculty member in the U.T. System to be awarded a Nobel Prize in the past 10 years. He shares the 1998 Nobel with researchers from the State University of New York at Brooklyn and the University of California at Los Angeles.

Dr. Murad received the prize for his work in discovering that nitric oxide acts as a signal for the cardiovascular system, a role that is important in the anti-impotence drug Viagra.

Other Nobel Laureates in the U.T. System are as follows:

• Alfred G. Gilman of the U.T. Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, who shared the 1994 prize in physiology or medicine for discovery of G-proteins and how cells confuse messages and foster diseases.

• Dr. Johann Deisenhofer of the U.T. Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, who shared the 1988 prize in chemistry for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center.

• Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein of the U.T. Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, who won the 1985 prize in physiology or medicine for discoveries involving cholesterol and cholesterol-related diseases.

• Steven Weinberg of U.T. Austin, who shared the 1979 prize in physics for contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.

• Ilya Prigogine of U.T. Austin, who received the 1977 prize in chemistry for his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

"We are overjoyed on behalf of Dr. Murad for the honor accorded him today," said U.T. System Chancellor William H. Cunningham. "He joins a distinguished group of colleagues across the U.T. System who have been similarly recognized for their contributions in pushing back the frontiers of knowledge on behalf of all mankind.

"Dr. Murad's selection as a Nobel Laureate is a clear signal of the important stature attained by the U.T. Health Science Center at Houston as a leading institution for medical research, education, and patient care. This well-deserved recognition for Dr. Murad is further evidence of the advancement of higher education in Texas and of the broad value to society of the state's investment in its higher education institutions."