Otto Loewi

Otto Loewi
Born(1873-06-03)June 3, 1873
DiedDecember 25, 1961(1961-12-25) (aged 88)
Citizenship
  • German
  • Austrian (from 1905)
  • American (from 1946)
Alma materUniversity of Strasbourg
Known forAcetylcholine
Spouse
Guida Goldschmiedt
(m. 1908; died 1958)
Children4
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPharmacology, Psychobiology
InstitutionsUniversity of Vienna
University of Graz

Otto Loewi (German: [ˈɔtoː ˈløːvi] ; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936, which he shared with Sir Henry Dale, who was a lifelong friend that helped to inspire the neurotransmitter experiment. Loewi met Dale in 1902 when spending some months in Ernest Starling's laboratory at University College, London.