John P. Hughes

John Hughes (born 6 January 1942) This discovery demonstrated that opiate drugs exert their effects on the human brain by mimicking endogenous neurotransmitters, the opioid peptides.

Education Hughes was born and grew up in South London. He would bicycle daily to a slaughterhouse, where he would trade bottles of whiskey to the butchers in exchange for pig heads, and he subsequently prepared brain extracts using acetone. In 1978, they shared the Lasker award with Solomon H. Snyder, and Hughes in particular was credited with predicting the existence of endogenous opioids.