On Oct. 10, 2012, Dr. Robert Lefkowitz became Duke’s first Nobel Prize winner.
The 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Lefkowitz and his former postdoc Brian Kobilka of Stanford for their research on a family of receptors that help the body’s cells sense and respond to things like hormones, neurotransmitters and other signals.
Today, more than a third of all approved drugs act through these receptors – called G-protein-coupled receptors – including antihistamines, ulcer drugs and beta blockers, to relieve hypertension, angina and coronary disease.
In 2023 the university celebrated Lefkowitz’s 80th birthday and his 50 years at Duke.