Melville Schachter’s early work concerned the control of gastric acid secretion, work which he initiated in 1947 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. In 1950 he moved to the National Institute of Medical Research at Mill Hill, London, where he worked both with Wilhelm Feldberg and with Bill Paton, on problems related to histamine, its release and effects of antagonists. He soon coined the name “kinins” for this generic group of peptides, returning to Canada in 1965 where he became the Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, a position he retained until his official retirement in 1986. His lifetime’s work on kinins was recognised in 1995, at the International Conference on Kinins held in Denver, Colorado, when he was awarded the Frey-Werle Medal, the highest honour in the field.

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