| Citation | Distinguished for his work on the drug receptor. With various colleagues Rang (1) has obtained the first convincing evidence, with tritiated atropine and smooth muscle, that receptor sites could be labelled and counted, setting our the necessary precautions in an approach now widely used; (2) with a covalently-binding antagonist specific for muscarinic receptors showed that the smooth muscle receptor was protein and dissociable into sub-units of about 40,000 daltons; (3) with an alkylating nicotinic antagonist was led to studes on desensitisation and the first direct evidence of a conformational change in receptors resulting form agonist action. And linked to the process of desensitization; (4) showed release of the false transmitter 'monoethylacetylcholine' at the neuromuscular junction, opening the possibility of measuring moment rates of tranmitter synthesis and turnover. An early paper gives the best account of non-specific drug action. Studies with Ritchie, exploiting chloride substitution, have added greatly to knowledge of electrogenic sodium pump activity in C fibres. All the work has been meticulous in technique and rigorous in approach. He has also written an important review on acetylcholine receptors. |