{{Short description|American neuroscientist (1946–2013)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Candace Beebe Pert | image = Candace_Pert.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1946|6|26|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Manhattan, New York City]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|9|12|1946|6|26|mf=y}} | death_place = [[Potomac, Maryland]] | residence = | citizenship = | ethnicity = | field = [[Neuroscience]] | work_institution = [[National Institutes of Health]]<br>[[Georgetown University]] | alma_mater = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = [[Opioid receptor]], [[mind-body medicine]] pioneer, [[HIV]] treatment | prizes = | religion = | footnotes = }}
'''Candace Beebe Pert''' (June 26, 1946 – September 12, 2013) was an American [[neuroscientist]] and [[pharmacologist]] who discovered the [[opiate receptor|opioid receptor]], the cellular binding site for [[endorphin]]s in the [[brain]].<ref name=obit/>
==Early life and education== She was born on June 26, 1946, in [[Manhattan, New York City]].
She completed her undergraduate studies in biology, ''cum laude'' in 1970 from [[Bryn Mawr College]] in Pennsylvania.
==Academic career== In 1974, Candace Pert earned a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in [[pharmacology]] from [[Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine]], where she worked in the laboratory of [[Solomon Snyder]] and discovered the brain's opiate receptor.<ref name="pmid4687585">{{cite journal | vauthors = Pert CB, Snyder SH | title = Opiate receptor: demonstration in nervous tissue | journal = Science | volume = 179 | issue = 4077 | pages = 1011–4 |date=March 1973 | pmid = 4687585 | doi = 10.1126/science.179.4077.1011 | bibcode = 1973Sci...179.1011P | s2cid = 21783674 }}</ref>
Pert conducted a [[National Institutes of Health]] Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Department of Pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1974 to 1975. She conducted research at the [[National Institute of Mental Health]] from 1975 to 1987.
In 1983, she became the Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch, the only female chief at NIMH.<ref name=dww>{{cite web | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588818803.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921061337/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588818803.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 21, 2013 | title=Pert, Candace B. (1946–) | publisher=Thomson Gale | work=Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages | date=January 1, 2007 | accessdate=September 5, 2012|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}</ref>
She left to found and direct a private biotech laboratory in 1987.
Pert was a research professor in the department of physiology and biophysics at [[Georgetown University School of Medicine]] in Washington, D.C.
In her latter years, she was with RAPID Pharmaceuticals.<ref>[http://www.rapidpharma.com/front_content.php RapidPharmaceuticals] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20110202212826/http://www.rapidpharma.com/front_content.php |date=2011-02-02 }} ''rapidpharma.com''</ref><ref>[http://www.candacepert.com/news.html Candace Pert] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111212905/http://www.candacepert.com/news.html |date=2010-01-11 }} ''candacepert.com''</ref>
In 1997 she published her book ''Molecules of Emotion.''
She appeared as one of the experts in [[Bill Moyers]] 1993 [[PBS]] video production, "Healing and the Mind", and in the 2004 film ''[[What the Bleep Do We Know!?|What the #$*! Do We Know!?]]''.
She died on September 12, 2013, in [[Potomac, Maryland]].<ref name=obit>{{cite news |author=John Schwartz |author-link=John Schwartz (reporter) |title=Candace Pert, 67, Explorer of the Brain, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/science/candace-pert-67-explorer-of-the-brain-dies.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 19, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Emily Langer |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/candace-b-pert-neuroscientist-who-discovered-opiate-receptor-dies-at-67/2013/09/18/c84ef128-1eda-11e3-8459-657e0c72fec8_story.html |title=Candace B. Pert, neuroscientist who discovered opiate receptor, dies at 67 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= September 19, 2013|accessdate=2013-09-21}}</ref>
===Peptides work=== Pert published over 250 scientific articles on peptides and their receptors and the role of these [[neuropeptide]]s in the immune system.
She held a number of patents for modified peptides in the treatment of psoriasis, Alzheimer's disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke and head trauma.
One of her modified peptides, [[Peptide T]], had been considered for the treatment of [[AIDS]] and <!--[[Cognitive effects of HIV|neuroAIDS]]-->[[HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder|neuroAIDS]]. A placebo-controlled, three-site, 200+ patient NIH-funded clinical trial which was principally concerned with possible neurocognitive improvements, was conducted between 1990 and 1995. It was found that the effect of Peptide T was not significantly different from that of placebo on the primary end points of the study - various aspects of brain function. However, Peptide T was associated with improved performance (memory and learning) in the subgroup of patients with more severe cognitive impairment.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Heseltine PN, Goodkin K, Atkinson JH |title=Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of peptide T for HIV-associated cognitive impairment |journal=Archives of Neurology |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=41–51 |date=January 1998 |pmid=9443710 |doi=10.1001/archneur.55.1.41|display-authors=etal|doi-access=free }}</ref> A long-delayed analysis of antiviral effects from the NIH study showed peripheral viral load (combined plasma and serum) was significantly reduced in the DAPTA-treated group.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Goodkin K, Vitiello B, Lyman WD |title=Cerebrospinal and peripheral human immunodeficiency virus type 1 load in a multisite, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of D-Ala1-peptide T-amide for HIV-1-associated cognitive-motor impairment |journal=Journal of Neurovirology |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=178–89 |date=June 2006 |pmid=16877299 |doi=10.1080/13550280600827344|s2cid=12925475 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> An eleven-person study of Peptide T effects on cellular viral load showed reductions in infected monocyte reservoir to undetectable levels in most of the patients.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Polianova MT, Ruscetti FW, Pert CB |title=Antiviral and immunological benefits in HIV patients receiving intranasal peptide T (DAPTA) |journal=Peptides |volume=24 |issue=7 |pages=1093–8 |date=July 2003 |pmid=14499289 |doi=10.1016/S0196-9781(03)00176-1|s2cid=40797488 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Pert was developing orally active peptide anti-inflammatory treatments for pain and Alzheimer's Disease and studies for treatment of HIV persistent viral reservoirs.
==Lecturing and media== Pert lectured worldwide on peptide and other subjects, including her theories on emotions and mind-body communication.
Her popular book, ''Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel'', (Scribner, 1997) expounded on her research and theories.
She was featured in [[Washingtonian (magazine)|''Washingtonian'']] magazine (December 2001) as one of Washington's fifty "Best and Brightest" individuals.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Granat|first=Diane|date=December 2001|title=Best and Brightest|work=Washingtonion|url=https://advance.lexis.com/api/permalink/7330330e-8101-4350-b6e5-a0c4d444fc2a/?context=1516831}}</ref>
The ''Sydney Morning Herald'' profiled Pert in 2004:
<blockquote>
As a mere graduate student, in 1972 Candace Pert discovered the brain’s opiate receptor – the cellular site where the body’s painkillers and "bliss-makers", the endorphins – bond with cells to weave their magic.
Pert's discovery led to a revolution in neuroscience, helping open the door to the "information-based" model of the brain which is now replacing the old "structuralist" model...
''Molecules of Emotion'' begins as an eye-opener into the intellectual warfare of modern scientific discovery – the gamesmanship, the sly purloining of others' results – but also into the round-the-clock work, the exhilaration of a shared breakthrough, and the slow, painful rise of women in the scientific professions.
The book concludes with the author integrating the science she pioneered with the holistic "energy medicines" which work on the same principles – till now without scientific rationales.<ref name=SydneyMorningHerald2004>Candace Pert, neuroscientist, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne); January 18, 2004.</ref> </blockquote>
Pert's experimental drug Peptide T is referenced as an alternative HIV/AIDS treatment in the 2013 film ''[[Dallas Buyers Club]]''.
===Event appearances=== * Pert was honored by the New York Open Center on November 7, 2006, for her "leadership across the bridge between science and heart."{{Cite quote|needs to be a much more specific citation than a home page. was: http://www.opencenter.org|date=August 2010}} * Pert received the first time award of the Theophrastus Paracelsus Foundation in Holistic Medicine for her pioneering work in the area of [[psychoneuroimmunology]] (St Gallen, Switzerland) on April 12, 2008.
===Other appearances=== In 2004, Pert was an interview partner in the documentary film ''[[What the Bleep Do We Know!?]]'' where she appeared several times. She also appeared in the 2009 [[Louise Hay]] movie ''[http://www.youcanhealyourlifemovie.com/ You Can Heal Your Life]''.<ref name="HealYourLife">{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1277154/combined | title=You Can Heal Your Life (2007) | publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]] | accessdate=September 20, 2013}}</ref>
==Books== * ''Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Between Mind-Body Medicine'' Scribner (1999), {{ISBN|0-684-84634-9}} * ''Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d'', with Nancy Marriott, [[Hay House]], Inc. (2006), {{ISBN|1-4019-1059-9}} * ''Candace Pert: Genius, Greed, and Madness in the World of Science'', Pamela Ryckman (2023), ISBN 978-0-306-83146-1 (hardcover); 978-0-306-83148-5 (ebook)
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pert, Candace Beebe}} [[Category:American neuroscientists]] [[Category:American women neuroscientists]] [[Category:Neurochemists]] [[Category:American pharmacologists]] [[Category:American women pharmacologists]] [[Category:21st-century American inventors]] [[Category:American science writers]] [[Category:Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni]] [[Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni]] [[Category:1946 births]] [[Category:2013 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American women scientists]] [[Category:20th-century American chemists]] [[Category:21st-century American women inventors]]