Portrait of Salvador Moncada

Half-length portrait of Salvador Moncada, looking directly out at the camera, from the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre, University of Manchester.

Sir Salvador Moncada, pharmacologist and professor, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1988. His research helped show that aspirin and aspirin-like drugs inhibit the biosynthesis of prostalgandins, thus explaining their mechanism of action. Subsequently, he led the team that discovered prostacyclin — a vasodilator and antiplatelet agent now used to treat life-threatening primary pulmonary hypertension.

Moncada was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1994 'for his contributions to pharmacology and the discovery of basic mechanisms of signal transmission relevant to drug action', and gave the Croonian Lecture in 2005 on 'Adventures in vascular biology'. In addition to being a Fellow of the Royal Society, he is a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences.