The Society was sad to hear of the death of Dr Ann Silver, an eminent British physiologist and Honorary Fellow of The Society, who died on 10 March. She was best known for her pioneering work on the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Silver joined The Society in 1963 and was a dedicated member who worked on the Committee and was editor for one of The Society’s journals, The Journal of Physiology.

She studied at the University of Edinburgh, initially learning zoology, chemistry and physics. Over the course of her undergraduate degree, she focused more on physiology. During the holidays, Silver worked in the lab under the tutelage of Catherine Hebb, mainly researching cholinesterases, which remained a key interest of study throughout Silver’s life.

It was during her studies in Edinburgh that Silver attended her first Physiological Society meeting in 1952, a talk about baroreceptors delivered by David Whitteridge. In 1960, she completed a PhD in physiology as an external student at the University of Edinburgh while carrying out research at The Institute of Animal Physiology (renamed the Babraham Institute in 1993) which was funded by the Agricultural Research Council.

At The Institute of Animal Physiology, Silver continued to work with Catherine Hebb and they co-authored several papers about the acetylcholine system. Silver worked on mapping the enzymes, choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AchE) and investigating the nerve transport mechanism. While at Babraham, Silver worked with many other eminent scientists, including Sir John Gaddum, a pharmacologist and neurochemist, Marthe Vogt, one of the leading neurologists of the 20 century and Krešimir Krnjević, a neurophysiologist.

In 1974 Silver published her book, Biology of cholinesterases, which is said to be an inspiration for a generation of researchers. Her work helped to lay the foundations of the cholinergic hypothesis by mapping cholinergic systems. It also emphasised the importance of these pathways in brain areas central to cognitive and memory functions, leading to the development and use of cholinesterase inhibitors to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

After devoting most of her life to lab work, Silver took on the role of information officer to improve public relations and awareness about vivisection. She was involved in drafting the Animals Act 1986, which regulates how animal experiments are carried out in the UK.