Cleveland Clinic has received the National Historic Chemical Landmark designation from the American Chemical Society,<\/a> one of the most prestigious honors in the history of science. The recognition places the Clinic’s discovery of serotonin alongside other landmark achievements including the discovery of penicillin, the invention of warfarin, and the work of Thomas Edison and George Washington Carver.<\/p>\nThe discovery that changed everything<\/p>\n
In 1948, a Cleveland Clinic research team led by Dr. Irvine Page became the first to isolate serotonin from the blood. Page worked alongside scientists Arda Green and Maurice Rapport, who initially believed serotonin’s primary role was in the bloodstream. But isolating the molecule opened the door for further study \u2014 and researcher Betty Twarog later discovered that serotonin acts primarily as a neurotransmitter in the brain.<\/p>\n
That finding reshaped our understanding of human biology. Serotonin is now known to influence mood, cognition, memory, appetite and sleep \u2014 and its effects extend well beyond the brain throughout the body.<\/p>\n
From lab bench to medicine cabinet<\/p>\n
The team’s work established a direct link between serotonin and brain function, laying the groundwork for decades of neuroscience research. Most significantly, it led to the development of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors \u2014 SSRIs \u2014 among the most widely prescribed antidepressants in the world.<\/p>\n
Dr. Page’s contributions extended far beyond serotonin. He founded Cleveland Clinic’s first formal research division in 1945, and his work on hypertension and cardiovascular disease helped disprove the idea that atherosclerosis was simply an inevitable part of aging. He strengthened the link between diet and heart disease, demonstrated that hypertension could be treated and reversed and became an early advocate for what would become the National Academy of Medicine. His influence reached far beyond the lab \u2014 he once appeared on the cover of Time Magazine.<\/p>\n
Cleveland Clinic’s chief research and academic officer, Dr. Serpil Erzurum, said the designation honors the clinic’s more than 100-year commitment to improving patient care through innovation and scientific discovery \u2014 and that Dr. Page’s spirit of bold inquiry still drives the institution’s research mission today.<\/p>\n
The American Chemical Society<\/a> will mark the honor with a commemorative plaque to be hung at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The American Chemical Society honored Cleveland Clinic with a landmark designation for the 1948 discovery that shaped modern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-612192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}