Record

EC - Certificates of election and candidature for Fellowship of the Royal Society
- 1974 - Certificates of Election 1974

RefNo	EC/1974/28
Previous numbers	Cert XIX, 139
Level	Item
Title	Thompson, Robert Henry Stewart: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Description	Citation typed
Citation	Distinguished for his research on chemical pathology. Over a period of more than three decades, he has made important contributions to his subject and continues to do so. He is recognised as one of the most distinguished representatives of his profession in this country and has a high international reputation. Among his many contributions to pyruvate metabolism which he made as an outstanding member of the flourishing school of biochemistry created by Sir Rudolph Peters, was the now classical demonstration that the pyruvate levels in the blood of thiamine deficient animals were high and he developed this observation as a means of differentiating thiamine deficient polyneuropathy in man from other forms associated with high pyruvate blood levels. His elucidation of the nature of the interaction between arsenicals and thiol groups in proteins was the basis for the development of 2:3, dimercaptopropanol (British Anti-lewisite) as an antidote to arsenical and other metallic compounds. This marked an important advance in chemotherapy for which he was primarily responsible. In his enzyme distribution studies he showed that cholinogenic urticaria is associated with low choline esterase in the skin, and that phospholipase A is present in brain and is possibly related to the demyelination process. Another important observation for clinical medicine was his discovery that in Wilson's disease the urinary copper content is high. In recent years his interests centered around multiple sclerosis. He was able to show widespread abnormalities in lipid metabolism, manifesting themselves in the brain by changes in the proportion of different fatty acids, and in plasma erythrocytes and platelets, manifesting themselves by alterations of the linoleate levels and suggesting a defect in the regulatory mechanism of the incorporation of fatty acids into the cell membrane lipids. Throughout his life work he has recognised the importance of the intact animal for functional biochemical studies; has made extensive use of that unique source of biological observations: clinical medicine. He is the Head of a large flourishing department of biochemistry.
AccessStatus	Closed

Fellows associated with this archive

Code	PersonName	Dates
NA2153	Thompson; Robert Henry Stewart (1912 - 1998)	1912 - 1998

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