Medical world remembers Dr. Hauptman

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The medical world is mourning the death of one of western New York's most influential scientists, and only Nobel Prize recipient, Dr. Herbert Hauptman.

Dr. Hauptman died of natural causes Sunday at the age of 94. Several people have probably heard of Dr. Hauptman, but few realize the impact he has made both in western New York and to the millions of people he’s helped with the technology he created.

As you look around the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, you can't help but notice the work of the man who's name the institute bears.

Dr. Hauptman transformed the medical world with his studies of x-ray crystalology, simply put, he figured out how molecules are constructed, which was used to make medicine.

“This is something that is applied all over the world every day. He was the person who really laid the groundwork for many of these medical advancements that are occurring today,” said Dr. Richard Aubrecht, Chairman of Hauptman Woodward.

In 1985, Dr. Hauptman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. After figuring out what many scientists couldn't for more than four decades with his molecule research.

As a result, many new drugs were designed through his work to fight cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease and many other diseases.

Hauptman Woodward CEO Dr. Eaton Lattman said, “I would say every drug developed since 1990 has been studied by the tools Dr. Hauptman developed. It's hard to point to one because there are thousands.”

With a Nobel Prize comes a great amount of interest from some of the biggest research universities in the world. But Dr. Hauptman chose to stay in Buffalo.

Longtime friend Dr. William Duax said, “He had offers to go elsewhere for four times the money where they would build buildings for him. But he felt such allegiance to Buffalo and the people who worked with him here that no offer was going to take him away.”

In 1994, the Medical Foundation of Buffalo was renamed after him, changing not only what was studied there, but how Buffalo was viewed in the medical world.

Duax said, “It's original work was much more in physiology than on the molecules we study today. It was really Dr. Hauptman and his colleagues that transformed the research profile of the institute to something unique where his work would bring us to the fore and bring the institute into an international reputation.

Up until last year, Dr. Hauptman was still teaching at Hauptman Woodward.

A memorial will be held in the next few weeks at the institute.