Robert Francis Furchgott was a Nobel Prize-winning American biochemist who contributed to the discovery of nitric oxide as a transient cellular signal in mammalian systems.

Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, and located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine shares a campus with Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Children's Hospital, and the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center. It has consistently ranked among the top medical schools in the United States in terms of the number and amount of research grants/funding awarded by the National Institutes of Health, in addition to other measures.