Avram Goldstein: The Founder of Molecular Pharmacology

摘要

This special issue of Molecular Pharmacology is presented in honor of the founder of Molecular Pharmacology, Avram Goldstein, MD, who died on June 1, 2012, just a few weeks before his 93rd birthday. Avram strengthened the discipline of pharmacology during the second half of the last century by insisting on rigorous mechanistic explanations for the extraordinary variety of effects of chemical agents on biologic systems. Although he made major contributions to the field of opioid research, his reach extended beyond biomedical science to aviation, feminism, and a deeply felt sense of social justice that led him, later in his career, to advocate strenuously for a public policy that would treat heroin addiction as a brain disorder rather than a punishable offense.