Salvador Moncada is a bio-medical scientist who has greatly contributed to the understanding of the cardiovascular system with the discovery of the mechanism of action of aspirin-like drugs, the enzyme thromboxane synthase, the vasodilator prostacyclin and nitric oxide, formerly known as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor.
Director of the Wellcome Research Laboratories from 1986 until 1995, he oversaw the discovery and development of a number of medicines including lamotrigine (anti-epileptic), zomig (anti-migraine), atovaquone (anti-malarial) and the initiation of the project which led to the discovery of lapatinib (anti-cancer).
In 1996 Salvador Moncada established and directed the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at University College London. At the invitation of the Spanish Government, between 1999 and 2004 he conceived, designed and developed the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid.In October 2013, he became Emeritus Professor of Experimental Biology and Therapeutics at University College London and Professor of Translational Medicine and Strategic Advisor at the University of Manchester where he later became Director of the Institute of Cancer Sciences. In 2019, he retired from the University of Manchester as an Emeritus Professor.
Salvador Moncada is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Science of the USA. He has received numerous international awards and honorary doctorates from more than 20 Universities around the world. He was acknowledged as the most cited UK scientist in biomedicine in the 1990s. In 2010, he received a Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Science.
In June 2023, he was appointed the first ambassador of Honduras to the Peoples Republic of China.
