Theodore Sourkes was a brilliant biochemist and neuropsychopharmacologist whose research played a major role in advancing the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and hypertension, as well as our understanding of psychiatric biochemistry.
Born in Montreal, Sourkes went to high school in Quebec City. During World War II, he worked in Toronto at a chemical engineering company that produced weapons used for the war effort. After the war, he received a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from McGill University’s MacDonald College and went on to complete a Ph.D. at Cornell University. He spent some time working as an assistant professor of pharmacology at Georgetown University before joining the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research where his notable discoveries led to the development of the medication Aldomet, the first effective treatment against hypertension. In 1953, he returned to teaching at McGill University’s Department of Psychiatry (at the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry), where he pursued the rest of his academic career.
Sourkes was the director of the neurochemistry laboratory at the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry. He was one of the first researchers to demonstrate that biochemical alterations in specific regions of the brain can also be a cause of mental illness. In addition, he was an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of nutrition, in particular for his studies which led to the use of the substance L-Dopa in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and the introduction of methyldopa into the pharmacological literature. This medication is largely used to treat hypertension. L-Dopa, which revolutionized Parkinson’s treatment, remains to this day the most effective treatment against the disease.
Sourkes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was the recipient of many prestigious honours and distinctions, including the first Heinz-Lehmann Award in Neuropsychopharmacology and the Wilder-Penfield Prize awarded by the government of Quebec. In 2013, in honour of his significant scientific legacy, McGill University established the Theodore Sourkes Lecture Series in Neuropharmacology.
Sourkes retired professionally in 1991. He was married to Dr. Shena Rosenblatt Sourkes, an anaesthesiologist, for 72 years.
