Schwartz Honored for a Lifetime of Achievement

The College of Medicine will hold a special event "Celebrating a Lifetime of Achievement: Arnold Schwartz, PhD” on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in MSB 3351. A reception will follow the event and the university community is invited to attend. Arnold Schwartz, PhD, MD (hc), D.Sc, R.Ph, was first recognized at UC with a Distinguished University Research Professor awarded in 1988. Most recently, he was awarded the Drake Medal in 2016. His specialty is a team effort approach to developing new drugs used to treat heart dysfunctions. Utilizing many disciplines he initially established the mechanism of action of digitalis, known as the oldest drug used to treat heart failure. On October 27, 2016 he will take you on an exciting journey leading from the synthesis of 2 calcium channel blocking drugs (50 years ago) to its receptor’s isolation and mechanisms of action and current use in clinical conditions of heart dysfunction. 

Schwartz majored in Chemical Engineering at City College of NY, and recognizing the importance of medicinal chemistry for drug development, he transferred to The Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy. He graduated cum laude and was licensed as a RPh., enlisted in the USAF, and served as chief pharmacist at various bases including a hospital unit in Suwan, Korea. After 4+ years he was discharged and earned a M.Sc. in Pharmacology at OSU College of Pharmacy, and a PhD at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn under the Chair, Robert F. Furchgott. 

Schwartz, under the aegis of NHI Fellowships, studied the role of Na and calcium in dysfunctional brain slices under Henry MacIlwain, and then the Na,K, ATPase in heart tissue with Professor J.C. Skou, (Nobel Laureate). He was recruited by Dr. Michael E. Debakey, at Baylor College of Medicine, to Chair the new Department of Cell Biophysics. With a large team, he described the biochemical aspects of hearts that were diseased and the transplanted normal heart, a notable first in in the world, leading Schwartz and Debakey to many awards. 

He was recruited to UC in 1977 as Chair of the newly renamed Department of Pharmacology and Cell Biophysics.