Vittorio Erspamer was born in Molosco, Trento in 1909. He obtained his degree in medicine at the University of Pavia (1935), where he studied with Maffo Vialli, director of the Istituto di anatomia comparata e fisiologia. In the enterochromaffin cells of the intestines, Dr. Vialli and Dr. Erspamer identified a substance that had never been isolated: “enteramine” which, 10 years later in 1948, the scientific community called serotonin.
Dr. Erspamer’s studies and career were characterised by many experiences: after having studied in Pavia, he studied in Berlin and Bonn, where he learnt the traditional methods used by pharmacology: how to prepare biological materials from which natural substances are extracted and how to test their pharmacologic action. He left Berlin and moved to Rome, where he stayed from 1938 to 1947. Later on, he moved to the University of Bari as professor of Pharmacology. He then moved to Parma, where he worked as university professor again (1955-1967) and moved back to Rome, where, in 1984, he was appointed Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology. Thanks to the first researches carried out by the young graduate Vittorio Erspamer and Maffo Vialli, “enteramine” was identified (1935). This molecule was not left aside though, but it kept being studied over the years: in 1945, Dr. Erspamer was working at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, where he tested the pharmacologic effects of enteramine-like substances that had been isolated in molluscs and very simple water organisms, such as sea squirts. The chemical characterization of enteramine/serotonin would later be perfected thanks to the collaboration of Biagio Asero, a chemist working with the Farmitalia pharmaceutical company, since the substance was extracted from octopuses, inside which it had been detected. Its chemical structure is defined by crystallization in the years from 1951 to 1953: Dr. Erspamer and Dr. Asero identified serotonin as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). This molecule was also isolated and characterised, in an independent way, by foreign researchers who used bovine blood and, many years later, human brain; in such a way, it became a target molecule for developing medicines used in neuropsychiatry especially.
His tests on molluscs and amphibians were of fundamental importance for Dr. Erspamer, who spent many years studying and characterising pharmacologically active peptide substances, but also different types of substances, coming from the skin of amphibians and molluscs that he collected everywhere in the world. Among these substances: bombesin, cerulein and tachykinins. Farmitalia chemists do contribute to his researches. Vittorio Erspamer became then one of the greatest international experts on amphibians, from which he extracted narcotics that were way more effective than morphine. Vittorio Erspamer died in 1999 in Rome. During his life he had discovered a huge number of natural molecules characterised by pharmacological activity and had been a Nobel candidate.
Dr. Erspamer’s studies and career were characterised by many experiences: after having studied in Pavia, he studied in Berlin and Bonn, where he learnt the traditional methods used by pharmacology: how to prepare biological materials from which natural substances are extracted and how to test their pharmacologic action. He left Berlin and moved to Rome, where he stayed from 1938 to 1947. Later on, he moved to the University of Bari as professor of Pharmacology. He then moved to Parma, where he worked as university professor again (1955-1967) and moved back to Rome, where, in 1984, he was appointed Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology. Thanks to the first researches carried out by the young graduate Vittorio Erspamer and Maffo Vialli, “enteramine” was identified (1935). This molecule was not left aside though, but it kept being studied over the years: in 1945, Dr. Erspamer was working at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, where he tested the pharmacologic effects of enteramine-like substances that had been isolated in molluscs and very simple water organisms, such as sea squirts. The chemical characterization of enteramine/serotonin would later be perfected thanks to the collaboration of Biagio Asero, a chemist working with the Farmitalia pharmaceutical company, since the substance was extracted from octopuses, inside which it had been detected. Its chemical structure is defined by crystallization in the years from 1951 to 1953: Dr. Erspamer and Dr. Asero identified serotonin as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). This molecule was also isolated and characterised, in an independent way, by foreign researchers who used bovine blood and, many years later, human brain; in such a way, it became a target molecule for developing medicines used in neuropsychiatry especially.
His tests on molluscs and amphibians were of fundamental importance for Dr. Erspamer, who spent many years studying and characterising pharmacologically active peptide substances, but also different types of substances, coming from the skin of amphibians and molluscs that he collected everywhere in the world. Among these substances: bombesin, cerulein and tachykinins. Farmitalia chemists do contribute to his researches. Vittorio Erspamer became then one of the greatest international experts on amphibians, from which he extracted narcotics that were way more effective than morphine. Vittorio Erspamer died in 1999 in Rome. During his life he had discovered a huge number of natural molecules characterised by pharmacological activity and had been a Nobel candidate.
