David Cushman (November 15, 1939 – August 14, 2000) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was the son of Wayne B. and Mildred M. and married to Linda L. Kranch. They have two children together named Michael and Laura Cushman. Dr. Cushman was an American chemist who co-invented

captopril Captopril, sold under the brand name Capoten among others, is an ACE inhibitor, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor used for the treatment of hypertension and some types of congestive heart failure. Captopril was the first oral ACE inh ...

, the first of the

ACE inhibitor Angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) are a class of medication used primarily for the treatment of high blood pressure and heart failure. This class of medicine works by causing relaxation of blood vessels as well as a decr ...

s used in the treatment of

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...

. With Miguel A. Ondetti, he won the 1999

Lasker Award In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...

for: "developing an innovative approach to drug design based on protein structure and using it to create the ACE inhibitors, powerful oral agents for the treatment of high blood pressure, heart failure, and diabetic kidney disease."

Biography

In high school, Dr. Cushman didn't have a drive or reason to succeed academically until he found a class he enjoyed because of the teacher. He went on to Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana where he majored in Zoology and minored in Chemistry. His tenacious attitude gave him the boost to get magna cum laude. He was a first-generation college student in his family and grew up poor. He also stated that growing up poor is what made him strive for better, stating "being poor is a great stimulus for wanting to achieve something." After earning his Ph.D. in 1966 from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, Dr. Cushman joined the Squibb Institute for Medical Research. His and Dr. Ondetti's research began with the Brazilian pit viper, one of the world's deadliest snakes. Something in the venom inhibits

angiotensin-converting enzyme Angiotensin-converting enzyme (), or ACE, is a central component of the renin–angiotensin system (RAS), which controls blood pressure by regulating the volume of fluids in the body. It converts the hormone angiotensin I to the active vasocon ...

(ACE), which helps regulate blood pressure. At first the idea of this drug was controversial and many believed that the drug would be ineffective. There were multiple instincts when people told them to quit. Despite that, Dr. Cushman, and Dr. Ondetti paid no attention to them and continued their research. Dr. Cushman even considered Zola Horovitz as a hero for his support. Dr. Cushman says captopril's significance from a basic research point of view is that it was developed through pure chemical design. He credits Dr.

John Vane Sir John Robert Vane (29 March 1927 – 19 November 2004) was a British pharmacologist who was instrumental in the understanding of how aspirin produces pain-relief and anti-inflammatory effects and his work led to new treatments for heart ...

with suggesting angiotensin converting enzyme as a target for research at The Squibb Institute. As Dr. Ondetti put it in an interview, "

Capoten Captopril, sold under the brand name Capoten among others, is an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor used for the treatment of hypertension and some types of congestive heart failure. Captopril was the first oral ACE inhibitor found f ...

really was the first example of rational drug design based on a hypothetical biological mechanism." Dr. Cushman and Dr. Ondetti were not expecting as much publicity from discovering the captopril drug or the importance of the drug it was in that field. The captopril became available to the public in 1982 once the FDA viewed it. An issue that occurred was that the drug caused rashes when "very high doses of the drug" are given. It was stated that the captopril is "an oral drug that significantly reduces hypertension in more than eighty percent of users and has no side effects on the central or autonomic nervous systems." Retired at 54 Dr. Cushman does many things in his free time like golfing, languages, and traveling around the world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cushman, David 1939 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American biochemists Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award