My father, Robert Smith, who has died aged 91, was a pharmacologist and professor at St Mary’s medical school in London (now part of Imperial College) whose work helped shape thinking on people’s differing responses to drugs – genetically, biochemically and clinically.
Bob became well known in particular for his role in the discovery of “debrisoquine polymorphism”. An enthusiastic participant when it came to self-experimentation at St Mary’s, in 1975 he was one of five volunteer researchers who took debrisoquine, a drug developed to manage blood pressure. Bob was the only volunteer to suffer adverse effects (hypotension) and collapsed.
