Salomon Z. Langer

Salomon Zender Langer is a pharmacologist known for his prominent work in neurotransmission and drug discovery. He was born in 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

His parents were Polish Jews who immigrated to Argentina in the early 1930s. He grew up in Buenos Aires, and graduated in 1960 from the School of Medicine of Buenos Aires University with the Gold Medal (a distinction awarded to the highest grade point average over medical studies). He married Martha Faigelbaum in 1960 and they had three daughters.

In 1962 he received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to continue his studies at Tulane University, New Orleans, and his fellowship was prolonged to join the Department of Pharmacology at Harvard University from 1963 until the end of 1966. His research was on the mechanisms involving denervation supersensitivity.^[1] with Ullrich Trendelenburg.^[2][3]

From 1966 to 1967 he received a fellowship from the Heymans Institute, Ghent, Belgium.

From 1967 to 1969 he received a fellowship as a Senior Research Fellow to work at the Institute of Animal Physiology, Cambridge, England, with Marthe Vogt on norepinephrine(NE) uptake and the regulation of NE release elicited by nerve stimulation as well as the metabolic fate of the released neurotransmitter.^[4] He also worked with Leslie Iversen at the Department of Pharmacology, Cambridge University.^[5][6]

In 1969, he returned to Argentina where he was appointed Director of the Institute for Pharmacological Research. His work led to the discovery of the presynaptic inhibitory Alpha-adrenoceptors on noradrenergic nerve terminals and their role in the modulation of the NE release during nerve stimulation^[7]

In 1974, Dr. Langer discovered the Alpha-2 adrenoceptors^[8] and characterized the pharmacological differences between alpha 1-adrenoceptors and alpha 2-adrenoceptors, establishing that the latter corresponded to the presynaptic auto-receptors^[9]

In 1975-1976, he provided the first extensive and rigorous evidence "in vitro"^[10][11] and "in vivo" of co-transmission (norepinephrine and adenosine triphosphate or ATP) in the cat's nictitating membrane.

In 1976, Dr. Langer became Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Wellcome Research Laboratories in Beckenham, Kent, UK.

In 1977 he was appointed Director of Biology at fr:Synthélabo Research in Paris, France, where he was later to become the Research Director and Vice-President. Between 1979-1980, the research team directed by Dr. Langer discovered a specific, high-affinity binding site for 3H-imipramine^[12] and later 3H-paroxetine,^[13] which is associated with the serotonin transporter in the brain and in blood platelets of various species, including man. 3H-paroxetine was subsequently used as a marker in the purification of the serotonin transporter for cloning and expression.

Throughout the 1980s Dr. Langer continued his work on presynaptic autoreceptors regulating norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin (5-HT) release and reported the interactions in neurotransmission between the neuronal transporter and the corresponding autoreceptor.^{[14][15] [16]}

In 1984 he was listed among the 250 most-cited scientific primary authors according to the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) Citation Index ^[17]

During the 23 years at Synthelabo, Dr. Langer discovered and developed five compounds : Diltiazem, Betaxolol, Alfusozin, Zolpidem and Mizolastine.

From 2000 to 2007 Dr Langer joined Compugen, an Israeli biotechnology company, as Senior Vice-President of Molecular biology and drug discovery.

After moving to Israel, in 2014 Dr. Langer founded the drug company Synaptic Pharma Ltd to develop Eliprodil, a noncompetitive antagonist of the ionotropic NMDA receptor for a rapid onset antidepressant action in severely drug-resistant depressed patients.

Dr Langer is among the highly cited researchers (ISI) in Pharmacology since 1981 (total citations 34640 in October 2025).^[18]

Dr Langer has published more than 450 scientific articles and is holder of more than twenty patents in France, USA and Japan. He was editor of fourteen books and member of editorial boards of numerous scientific journals.

• 1960: Gold medal to the best graduate at the Medical School, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 1962: School of Medicine Award given to the best doctoral thesis of the year: « Audiogenic seizures », University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 1962: Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship
• 1976: Guggenheim Fellowship for research in cardiovascular pharmacology
• 1977: Gaddum Memorial Lecture Award^[19] by the British Pharmacological Society
• 1980: G.E. Brown Memorial Lecture^[20] of the American Heart Association
• 1981:First International Prize of the Anna-Monika Foundation^[21] (Dortmund, West Germany) for research in the field of endogenous depression.
• 1986: Pythagoras Prize in Pharmacology. Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy.
• 1991:Otto Krayer Award in Pharmacology, presented by ASPET (American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics)
• 1991: Ciba Award^[22] in Hypertension, presented by the Council for High Blood Pressure of the American Heart Association, USA.
• 1993: Eli Lilly Award in Neuroscience from the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology(ECNP).^[23]
• 1999: Lieber Prize in Schizophrenia^[24] presented by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), USA.
• 2000: ASPET Award^[25] of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
• 2002: Julius Axelrod Award Medal^[26] for research in the field of Catecholamines (ASPET).
• 2009: Mark Nickerson Memorial Lecture^[27] at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• 2009:Inaugural Norman Weiner Memorial Award^[28] by the International College of Neurophychopharmacology (CINP)
• 2010: Pioneers in Psychopharmacology Award^[29] by the CINP

• 1972-1974 Vice-President of the Latin American Society of Pharmacology
• 1974-1976 President of the Latin American Society of Pharmacology
• 1975-1977 President of the Argentine Society of Experimental Pharmacology
• 1975-1980 Member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel on drug evaluation
• 1984 ISI citation index: Dr Langer was listed among the 250 most-cited scientific primary authors
• 1989 to 1992 President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP)
• 1991 to 1998 Vice-President of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP)
• 1991 to 1997 Member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP)
• 1999 Honorary Professor, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Honorary member of the National Academy of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2002 to 2006 Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee of IUPHAR(International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology)
• 2006 to 2010 First Vice-President of IUPHAR

• The first extensive and rigorous evidence of co-transmission of neurotransmitters (norepinephrine and ATP) in the 1970s, demonstrating that neurons can release more than one type of neurotransmitter simultaneously.
• The identification and description of presynaptic auto-receptors for several neurotransmitters, including dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, GABA and glutamate. These auto-receptors regulate neurotransmitter release and are critical in synaptic transmission control.
• The discovery of a specific, high-affinity binding site for 3H-imipramine and later 3H-paroxetine associated with serotonin transporter in brain and blood platelets, which played a key role in serotonin transporter purification for cloning and expression
• Development and discovery of several important pharmacological compounds, including Diltiazem (a calcium antagonist used for coronary insufficiency), Betaxolol (a selective beta-1 antagonist used for hypertension and glaucoma), Alfusozin (an alpha-1 adrenergic blocker primarily used to treat symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia), Zolpidem (a selective agonist for benzodiazepine receptors used for insomnia), and Mizolastine (a histamine H-1 receptor antagonist used for allergic diseases).
• Contributions to the development of the atypical antipsychotic Aripiprazole
• Research advancing drug discovery for major depression and Alzheimer’s disease, including founding Synaptic Pharma Ltd in 2014.

These discoveries significantly advanced the understanding of neurotransmission mechanisms, receptor pharmacology, and facilitated the development of key drugs in cardiovascular, neurological, psychiatric and allergic disease therapies.