Roderic Alfred Gregory

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FRS (29 December 1913 – 5 September 1990) was a British physiologist. He was born in 1913 in Plaistow, Essex, the only child of Alfred Gregory and Alice Jane (née Greaves) Gregory. His father was a fitter and turner who, in 1913, was employed by Brunner and Mond (later

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

). At the age of 11 he started at the local grammar school,

George Green's School George Green's School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form, located in Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. History The school was founded in 1828 by George Green, a shipbuilder and shi ...

. He then trained as a physiologist in the Department of Physiology at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

, London in the early 1930s and then studied gastrointestinal physiology for a PhD at North-Western University, Illinois. He turned his attention to

gastrin Gastrin is a peptide hormone that stimulates secretion of gastric acid (HCl) by the parietal cells of the stomach and aids in gastric motility. It is released by G cells in the pyloric antrum of the stomach, duodenum, and the pancreas. Gastrin ...

while he was Holt Professor of Physiology, and Head of Department, at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

(appointed in 1948). He "made fundamental contributions to the study of gut hormones through his isolation of the gastric acid stimulating hormone gastrin, the characterisation of its spectrum of actions, the identification of structure-activity relationships and discovery that gastrin was produced in excess in the tumours of patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome". Much of the work on gastrin at Liverpool was with his long-term collaborator

Hilda Tracy Hilda Tracy (14 October 1927 – 9 February 2010) worked at University of Liverpool, UK, with Rod Gregory FRS to isolate and characterise the gastrointestinal hormone gastrin. She led the structure-function studies and had the first insight int ...

in the same department. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

in 1965 and appointed a

in 1971. He won the

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

in 1978. He married Alice Watts in 1939.

References

Royal Medal winners Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Liverpool Fellows of the Royal Society British physiologists 1913 births 1990 deaths People from Plaistow, Newham Commanders of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-biologist-stub