Costa, Erminio (1924–2009)
Credits: Courtesy of the NIH Record
Erminio Costa, Ph.D., contributed to the discovery of how serotonin works, demonstrating the importance of neurotransmitter turnover rates in understanding neuronal function.
He also determined that anti-anxiety drugs act by facilitating inhibitory brain mechanisms and that receptors function as supramolecular entities where transmitters and co-transmitters act to ensure synaptic plasticity. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1982.