William Daughaday
= William Daughaday
{c}
\b[William H. Daughaday] was a researcher in <endocrinology> whose work helped connect <growth hormone> to circulating growth-promoting factors, including <insulin-like growth factor 1>. He became the founding chief of Washington University's Metabolism Division in 1951 and later led its diabetes and endocrine research centers. The division's institutional history also credits his work on <corticosteroid-binding globulin> and early measurements of <growth hormone> and <prolactin>.<William H. Daughaday, MD by Washington University in St. Louis>[institutional history, division leadership and scientific contributions]{ref}
With <W. D. Salmon Jr.>, Daughaday investigated why <blood serum> could stimulate <sulfate> incorporation in isolated <cartilage>. The resulting somatomedin hypothesis made an important conceptual separation: a <hormone> released by one organ can act through another circulating signal. Daughaday's 2000 retrospective describes the historical experiments behind that interpretation; later identification of <insulin-like growth factor 1> gave a molecular identity to an important part of this activity.<Growth hormone axis overview: somatomedin hypothesis by William Daughaday>[historical account of the serum-factor experiments]{ref}
The distinction remains useful when interpreting experiments: observing a <growth hormone>-dependent response in a whole animal does not show that <growth hormone> acts directly on the responding tissue.