John Vane was a towering figure in the physiological tradition of pharmacology. He was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, with B Samuelsson and S Bergström, for their work on aspirin. After graduating in chemistry from University of Birmingham (1946), he studied experimental pharmacology with JH Burn and G Dawes in Oxford and A Welch in Yale, subsequently joining the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at in London. He was awarded a personal chair there in 1966. Having developed his signature ‘blood bathed organ cascade’, he was then able to establish major features of bradykinin and angiotensin physiology – discoveries that led eventually to the development of ACE inhibitors. He began to study aspirin in 1971 and, while managing his research group at the Wellcome Foundation (1973-86), discovered prostacyclin with S Moncada and other colleagues. Prostacyclin analogues followed. Wellcome also produced other successful new drugs under Vane’s management, including Zovirax, Tracrium and Lamictal. Vane left Wellcome for St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School to build a new research team there – later The William Harvey Research Institute – largely focussed on cardiovascular hormones and the cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors. Knighted in 1984, John Vane was subsequently awarded over 50 other honorary degrees and fellowships.

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