A world-renowned pioneer in biochemistry, Dr. Murad’s key research demonstrated that nitroglycerin and related drugs worked by releasing nitric oxide into the body, which relaxed smooth muscle by elevating intracellular cyclic GMP. The missing steps in the signaling process were filled in by Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro of UCLA, for which the three shared the 1998 Nobel Prize. Dr. Murad and Furchgott also received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1996