Gordon Alles

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gordon A. Alles
Born
Gordon A. Alles

November 26, 1901
DiedJanuary 21, 1963 (1963-01-22) (aged 61)
Citizenship
pharmacologist
Known forDiscovering the physiological effects of amphetamine

Gordon A. Alles (November 26, 1901 – January 21, 1963), was an American

Counterfeit drugs such as Profetamine (a generic form of amphetamine sulfate) appeared, aiming to circumvent Alles' 'weak' patent.[1]

Career

Alles received his

Pasadena, and had been a Caltech research associate since 1939. In 1958 he gave Caltech a gift of $350,000 which financed, in large part, the five-story Gordon A. Alles Laboratory for Molecular Biology.[2]

Alles was primarily interested in natural and synthetic drug chemicals and the relationship between their molecular structures and their biological actions.

benzedrine (amphetamine) and he contributed to its development as a drug. This drug and dextroamphetamine, which was developed from the discovery, have had worldwide medical use as general brain stimulants.[5]

Alles also spent time in

tranquilizers from alkaloids in a native drink called kava.[2]

Quote from On Speed

Gordon Alles never lived to see the downfall of his invention in both medical doctrine and popular opinion. Perhaps inspired by the psychic effects he discovered in methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA, the original ecstasy) in 1930, Alles devoted almost the whole of his career to mind-altering drugs. In the 1930s and early 1940s, while still working closely with SKF, he produced hallucinogens related to amphetamine and mescaline, including MDA, for the firm to test in low doses as diet drugs and antidepressants. Alles also worked with SKF at isolating medically useful drugs from cannabis. Starting in the late 1950s, having become an honorary pharmacology professor at the medical school of the University of California, Los Angeles, he worked on developing hallucinogenic amphetamines such as MDA and even more powerful derivatives, partly funded by the U.S. Army’s chemical warfare program. He investigated hallucinogenic and stimulant chemicals in the Khat plant, starting with a 1955 expedition to Ethiopia to study how it was used in traditional medicine. In January 1963, upon returning from a Tahiti trip to investigate the traditional Kava root as a source of new tranquilizers, Alles died. The cause of death of this biochemist who had begun his career by studying insulin was, ironically, diabetes, a disease Alles never knew he had. Insulin could have saved his life, of course, but no matter how marvelous a drug may be in itself, it is only beneficial when accompanied by the right diagnosis and prescription.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine. Nicolas Rasmussen (2008).
  2. ^ a b c Staff, (1963) Gordon A. Alles. The Month at Caltech. Engineering and Science, 26 (5). pp. 18-19. ISSN 0013-7812]
  3. ^ University of California History. Los Angeles: Departments.
  4. ^ Schultes, Richard Evans; Ethnobotany: Evolution of a discipline
  5. S2CID 53203211
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gordon_Alles&oldid=1145169912"