Eduardo Braun-Menéndez

Eduardo Braun-Menéndez (b. January 16, 1903; d. January 1959) was a noted Chilean-Argentine physiologist.

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Born in Punta Arenas, Chile, he was however nationalized Argentine and developed his entire life in this country.

He studied at medicine at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, choosing cardiovascular medicine and physiology as his specialties. His doctoral thesis was developed at the Institute of Physiology, under the supervision of Nobel award winner Dr. Bernardo Houssay, in 1934, about the relationship between the pituitary gland and diencephalon and blood pressure. After receiving his doctoral degree, he went to England to study at the University College London, where he investigated the metabolism of the heart.

On his return from England he joined the prestigious team at the Institute of Physiology, with Luis Federico Leloir, Juan Fasciolo, Juan Muñoz and Alberto Tarquini to work for a few years on the mechanism of nephrogenic hypertension. In this research he made the most important of his discovery, that of angiotensin.

At the Institute, Braun-Menéndez became a research leader in cardiovascular physiology in 1935, and served as a senior lecturer and teaching assistant in the same area until 1946. He directed the Institute of Experimental Biology and Medicine until 1946 and was also the head of electrocardiography and physiotherapy at the Municipal Institute of Radiology and Physiotherapy of Buenos Aires. In 1955, he returned to the Chair of Houssay at the Institute of Physiology, as a Professor. In addition, he was part of the National Academy of Medicine and was honored with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of California and the University of Brazil. In addition, he was vice president of the Argentine Society of Biology and secretary of the Argentine Association for the Advancement of Sciences. He received the National Award for Science twice.

Braun-Menéndez also helped to create the important scientific journal Ciencia y Investigación which published its first issue in 1945 and was directed by him until 1959, when he died. Another of his initiatives was the Acta Physiologica Latinoamericana, a publication written in multiple languages for the publication of the work of Latin American physiologists.

Dr. Braun-Menéndez died in a plane crash in January 1959.