New Year’s Honours for UCL staff

Professor Moncada, who was recognised for his services to science, is the highest cited scientist in the UK, having made major contributions in three areas of cardiovascular pharmacology. His 1987 Nature paper led to the understanding of various attributes of nitric oxide, and the substance is now both the target and effector of a score of compounds now in the clinic for the treatment of cardiovascular and rheumatic diseases. Professor Moncada showed, together with the late Sir John Vane, that low-dose aspirin blocked the synthesis of stable prostaglandins and thromboxanes from arachidonic acid ? a finding that has had a major impact on cardiovascular mortality from stroke and myocardial infarction worldwide. Professor Moncada also elucidated the structure of prostacyclin, a compound formed by endothelial cells that relaxes blood vessels and prevents platelets from clumping; its derivatives ameliorate vasospasm and pulmonary hypertension. Professor Moncada is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians and an Honorary Fellow of UCL. He has played a key role within UCL's Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, both as Director of the Wolfson Institute and in developing research strategy as Vice-Dean (Research). Professor Sir John Tooke, UCL Vice-Provost (Health), said: ?Professor Moncada has made truly groundbreaking discoveries in cardiovascular pharmacology of major translational significance over more than three decades.