| Citation | J.C. Watkins is distinguished for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of excitatory amino acid neurotransmission in the vertebrate central nervous system. His initial studies, from 1958, of the structure-activity relationships of excitatory and inhibitory amino acids led to an investigation of model systems for biological membranes and transmitter-related receptors. From 1973 he has been concerned primarily with the design, synthesis and testing of agonists, and particularly of stereoselective antagonists, which have selective actions at membrane receptors activated by naturally occurring excitatory amino acids. In conjunction with investigations of the membrane and ionic events underlying such excitation, his findings have led to the recognition, differentiation and general acceptance of several types of central excitatory amino acid receptor, and to the use of selective antagonists as aids to the identification of the excitatory amino acid transmitter of particular central pathways. More recently his work has been fundamental to the development of new centrally active therapeutic agents for the management of neurological disorders arising either directly from disturbances of amino acid neurotransmission or indirectly as a consequence of now well recognized neurotoxic effect of excitatory amino acids. His research has been characterized by deep understanding of both chemistry and neurobiology. |