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			Graham John Durant Born Mar 14 1934 - Died Mar 11, 2009 Pharmacologically Active Guanidine Compounds Tagamet - Cimetidine Patent Number(s) 3,950,333; 4,024,271 Inducted 1990 Graham J. Durant, John Colin Emmett, and C. Robin Ganellin led the SmithKline Beecham Corporation's research team that discovered the H2 receptor class of drugs, including cimetidine, which inhibits the production of stomach acid. Durant, Emmett, and Ganellin's work, begun in 1964 and done in collaboration with Nobel laureate biologist Sir James Black, established a physiological role for histamine in the control of gastric acid secretions-the major cause of ulcers. Invention Impact The World Health Organization lists cimetidine, known by the brand name Tagamet, as one of the world's most essential drugs for its ability to heal stomach ulcers without surgery. Inventor Bio Born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Great Britain, Durant studied chemistry at Birmingham University (B.Sc., Ph.D.) and the State University of Iowa. He is the named inventor or coinventor of more than 150 U.S. patents in H2 antagonists and several other classes of drugs. He relocated to the United States in 1987, established the Center for Drug Design and Development at the University of Toledo, Ohio, and was its director until 1992. He is currently senior director of chemistry at Cambridge NeuroScience Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Inventure Place.