Snyder, Solomon Halbert (1938– )

US pharmacologist and neuroscientist who has studied the chemistry of the brain, and co-discovered the receptor mechanism for the body's own opiates, the encephalins.

Snyder was born in Washington, DC, and studied at Georgetown University. From 1965 he worked at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, becoming professor 1970.

In the early 1970s, in collaboration with his research student Candace Pert (1946– ), Snyder realized that the very specific effects of synthetic opiates given in small doses suggested that they must bind to highly selective target receptor sites. Using radioactively labelled compounds, they located such receptors in specialized areas of the mammalian brain and from this finding deduced that there might be natural opiatelike substances in the brain that used these sites. These chemicals, the encephalins, were discovered by others shortly afterwards.

Continuing to examine the relationships of chemicals to neural functioning, Snyder has made a particular study of the receptor sites for the benzodiazepine drugs, which are widely used in psychiatry.