won the Moinho Santista Award (the highest scientific decoration at the time in Brazil) as well as the National Award of Science and Technology from the National Research Council (CNPq). He was also a vice-president of the International Union of Pharmacology. Work Together with colleagues Wilson Teixeira Beraldo and Gastão Rosenfeld, Rocha e Silva discovered in 1948 the powerful hypotensive effects of bradykinin in animal preparations. Bradykinin was detected in the plasma of animals after the addition of venom of Bothrops jararaca (Brazilian lancehead snake), which was brought by Rosenfeld from the Butantan Institute, in São Paulo, Brazil. This discovery was part of a continuing study on circulatory shock and proteolytic enzymes related to the toxicology of snake bites, started by Rocha e Silva as early as 1939. Bradykinin was to be proved a new autopharmacological principle, i.e., a substance that is released in the body by a metabolic modification from precursors, which are pharmacologically active. According to B.J. Hagwood, Rocha e Silva's biographer, "The discovery of bradykinin has led to a new understanding of many physiological and pathological phenomena including circulatory shock induced by venoms and toxins." The practical importance of the discovery of bradykinin became apparent when one of his collaborators at Ribeirão Preto, Sérgio Henrique Ferreira, discovered a bradykinin potentiating factor (BPF) in the bothropic venom which increases powerfully both the duration and magnitude of its effects on vasodilation and the consequent fall in blood pressure. On the basis of this finding, Squibb scientists developed the first of a new generation of highly-effective anti-hypertensive drugs, the so-called ACE inhibitors, such as captopril (trademarked Capoten), which have been saving many lives since. Rocha e Silva had many interests besides scientific research and pharmacology. He was an accomplished amateur painter and a writer of fiction and non-fiction. He was interested in the public understanding of science, and wrote articles and books to the general public. He was also one of the founders of "Ciência e Cultura", the science magazine of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC). Bibliography Hagwood, BJ: Mauricio Rocha e Silva MD: snake venom, bradykinin and the rise of autopharmacology, Toxicon 1997 Nov;35(11):1569–80. External links Barros de Carvalho, R.: Maurício Rocha e Silva. Remarkable Persons in Brazilian Science. Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology (in Portuguese). (Dead Link) 1910 births 1983 deaths Brazilian pharmacologists Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences University of São