Henry Hallett Dale

Henry Hallett Dale (1875–1968) was a British pharmacologist and physiologist who established key principles of chemical neurotransmission and shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Chemical synapse: A junction where one cell communicates with another by releasing chemical messengers. Dale’s work helped demonstrate that nerve signals could cross junctions through chemical messengers.
Dale’s principle: The proposed rule that a neuron releases the same transmitter at all its synapses. Dale’s name became attached to this influential, later-qualified account of neuronal signaling.
University of Cambridge: A public research university in Cambridge, England, founded in 1209. Dale studied medicine there before beginning his research career.
John Newport Langley: A British physiologist who developed the concept of receptors through studies of autonomic drugs. Langley’s receptor research helped frame the pharmacological questions Dale pursued.
Acetylcholine: A neurotransmitter involved in muscle activation and signaling in the autonomic and central nervous systems. Dale identified its actions at nerve endings and helped establish it as a neurotransmitter.
Neuromuscular junction: The synapse where a motor neuron communicates with a skeletal muscle fiber. Dale’s acetylcholine research helped explain how motor nerves trigger muscle contraction.
Ernest Starling: An English physiologist who helped establish endocrinology and introduced the term hormone. Dale worked in Starling’s laboratory at University College London early in his career.
William Paton: A British pharmacologist known for research on autonomic transmission and neuromuscular blocking agents. Paton trained in Dale’s laboratory and extended its work on chemical transmission.
Otto Loewi: An Austrian-born pharmacologist whose experiments demonstrated chemical transmission between nerves and the heart. Dale shared the 1936 Nobel Prize with Loewi for discoveries concerning chemical transmission of nerve impulses.
Adrenaline: A hormone and neurotransmitter that mobilizes the body’s rapid stress response. Dale investigated its actions and compared them with effects of sympathetic nerve stimulation.

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