During his undergraduate studies, Vane became disenchanted with chemistry but still enjoyed experimentation. When Maurice Stacey, the Professor of Chemistry at Birmingham, was asked by Harold Burn to recommend a student to go to Oxford and study pharmacology, Vane jumped at the chance and moved to Burn's department in 1946. Under Burn's guidance, Vane found motivation and enthusiasm for pharmacology, writing: "[the] laboratory gradually became the most active and important centre for pharmacological research in the U.K. and the main school for training of young pharmacologists."[2] Vane completed a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacology and briefly went to work at the University of Sheffield,[citation needed] before coming back to Oxford to complete his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1953[4] supervised by Geoffrey Dawes.[5]
Career and research
After completing his DPhil, Vane worked as an assistant professor the Department of Pharmacology at Yale University before moving back to the United Kingdom to take up a post as a senior lecturer in the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of London in 1955.[6][7]
Vane held a post at the University of London for 18 years, progressing from senior lecturer to Professor of Experimental Pharmacology in 1966 (at the Royal College of Surgeons). During that time he developed certain bioassay techniques and focussed his research on both angiotensin-converting enzyme and the actions of aspirin, eventually leading to the publication with Priscilla Piper of the relationship between aspirin and the prostaglandins that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982.[8][9][10][11]
Wellcome Foundation
In 1973, Vane left his academic post at the Royal College of Surgeons and took up the position as Director of Research at the Wellcome Foundation, taking a number of his colleagues with him who went on to form the Prostaglandin Research department. Under the leadership of Salvador Moncada, this group continued important research that eventually led to the discovery of prostacyclin.[6]
John Vane married, in 1948, (Elizabeth) Daphne Page and had 2 daughters. He died on 19 November 2004 in Princess Royal University Hospital, Kent, from long-term complications arising from leg and hip fractures he sustained in May of that year.[15] Lady Vane died in 2021.[16]
^Liggins, G. (1998). "Geoffrey Sharman Dawes, C. B. E. 21 January 1918-6 May 1996". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 44: 111–125. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1998.0008. PMID11623979.
^Moncada; Ferreira, SH; Vane, JR (1975). "Inhibition of prostaglandin biosynthesis as the mechanism of analgesia of aspirin-like drugs in the dog knee joint". European Journal of Pharmacology. 31 (2): 250–60. doi:10.1016/0014-2999(75)90047-3. PMID1149792.
^Ferreira; Moncada, S; Vane, JR (1971). "Indomethacin and aspirin abolish prostaglandin release from the spleen". Nature New Biology. 231 (25): 237–9. doi:10.1038/newbio231237a0. PMID5284362.
^Vane (1971). "Inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis as a mechanism of action for aspirin-like drugs". Nature New Biology. 231 (25): 232–5. doi:10.1038/newbio231232a0. PMID5284360.
