Argentina
has contributed many distinguished doctors, scientists and inventors to the
world, including three Nobel Prize laureates in sciences. Argentines have been
responsible for major breakthroughs in world medicine; their research has led
to significant advances in wound-healing therapies and in the treatment of
heart disease and several forms of cancer. Domingo Liotta designed and
developed the first artificial heart successfully implanted in a human being in
1969. René Favaloro developed the techniques and performed the world's first
ever coronary bypass surgery, and Francisco de Pedro invented a more reliable
artificial cardiac pacemaker. Bernardo Houssay, the first Latin American
awarded with a Nobel Prize in the Sciences, discovered the role of pituitary
hormones in regulating glucose in animals; César Milstein did extensive
research in antibodies; Luis Leloir discovered how organisms store energy
converting glucose into glycogen and the compounds which are fundamental in
metabolizing carbohydrates. A team led by Alberto Taquini and Eduardo
Braun-Menéndez discovered angiotensin in 1939, and was the first to describe
the enzymatic nature of the renin-angiotensin system and its role in
hypertension. The Leloir Institute of biotechnology is among the most
prestigious in its field in Latin America and in the world. Dr. Luis Agote
devised the first safe method of blood transfusion; Enrique Finochietto
designed operating table tools such as the surgical scissors that bear his name
and a surgical rib-spreader. They have likewise contributed to bioscience in
efforts like the Human Genome Project, where Argentine scientists have
successfully mapped the genome of a living being, a world first.
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