Draft:Melville Sahyun

Dr. Melville Sahyun in the 1930s.

Lebanese-American biochemist Melville Sahyun (born 1895 in Obei, Lebanon) was the son of a Beirut physician, Dr. Fares Sahyoun. He graduated in 1916 (B.A., biology) from the American University of Beirut (AUB). He then served there as an instructor for three years. In 1919, he was appointed to the Secretariat of the Commandant of the British Mediterranean Navy (Army and Navy of occupation) and assigned to the office of the S/S Prince Line in Beirut; he was later transferred to Cairo. In the latter two assignments he was responsible to British intelligence and, according to his own account, served as “eyes and ears” for them.

In 1923, he emigrated to the United States, in part because if the violence-prone character of Lebanon at the time. Wm. McClure Thomson, one of the founders of AUB, writes that Lebanon “...has always been subject to revolutions, invasions and calamities of various kinds; ...a feeling of insecurity hovers over the land like a dismal spectre.” In the United States Melville initially joined his uncle Nicolás Rayes, who was a woodcarver and violin maker, in Santa Barbara. He there began his scientific career, which can be divided into three phases, namely diabetes research, nutritional role of proteins and amino acids, and drug discovery.

Diabetes Research

His involvement in research in the area began when he joined the Potter Metabolic Laboratory of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, which had recently come under the direction of Dr. William Sansum. At that time treatment of diabetes with insulin had just been developed at University of Toronto, and Dr. Sansum was the first US physician to successfully treat a terminally-ill diabetic patient with insulin, isolated in this case in Sansum’s own laboratory. Under the direction of Dr. Sansum’s chief chemist, Dr. Norman Blatherwick, Sahyun’s research had to do with both preparation and standardization of insulin. As a result of guidance and encouragement from Prof. John Mcleod, in whose laboratory in Toronto the first therapeutic insulin had been prepared, Melville decided on a career in biochemistry, rather than in clinical medicine, which had been his father’s intent for him.

Consequently, Sahyun undertook graduate studies at Stanford University and received the Ph.D. degree from Stanford in 1930, where he subsequently continued as an instructor for three years. In 1934, he joined the laboratories of pharmaceutical manufacturer Frederick Stearns & Co. in Detroit, Michigan. Sahyun continued his insulin research there, exploiting the work of Abel, who had succeeded in crystallizing insulin in 1926, to develop an industrially feasible process for producing an insulin product that was pure, stable and of reproducible potency. .

Proteins and Amino Acids in Nutrition

Driven by the exigencies of the World War II situation the Stearns Company became involved, at the government’s behest, in efforts to develop a nutritional supplement to facilitate the recovery of war-wounded combatants, as well as malnourished prisoners of war and, later, Holocaust survivors. Melville Sahyun was put in charge of this effort and, as background, documented the state of knowledge as to the human consequences of protein deficiency in a landmark review article. The resulting amino acid formulation became known commercially as ParenamineTM. The product was described in the Journal of the American Medical Association as a, “…physiologic short cut sparing the need for digestion and absorption in the gastrointestinal tract.” An important theme in Sahyun’s development of this supplement was the awareness of the physiological need for simultaneous availability of all amino acids required ;for protein biosynthesis.

In the mid-1940s the Stearns enterprise was acquired by Sterling Drug, of which Melville became a vice-president, but then he resigned to become an independent “Chemist Consultant”. During this phase of his career he edited and arranged publication of two monographs, “Outline of the Amino Acids and Proteins” and “Proteins and Amino Acids in Nutrition”.

Drug Discovery

In 1949, Melville Sahyun decided on a new career direction, emphasizing drug discovery. He formed an independent research organization, Sahyun Laboratories, and had a building especially designed and built for this work in Santa Barbara. The structure is now the home of the Sahyun Library of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society, having been donated to that organization by the Sahyun family in 1998.

The new organization was highly productive and over 50 patentable inventions resulted from the work at Sahyun Laboratories. Perhaps the most successful molecule was tetrahydrozoline, an anti-inflammatory agent. It was initially the basis of a nasal decongestant, TyzineTM, marketed by Chas. Pfizer & Co. Sahyun personally formulated it into an ophthalmic preparation, which was also taken over and marketed by Pfizer & Co. under the now well-known trade name, VisineTM. Pfizer continued to market it until 2009, when its consumer product line was sold to Johnson & Johnson, Inc.

Along the way Sahyun worked another biochemical projects,including development of an enzymatic process for skinning abalone. During the 1950s and 1960s the Central California coast was home to a robust commercial and sport abalone fishing industry, until the species was essentially wiped out by overfishing, and abalone fishing was banned in 1997.

The final successful product to emerge from Sahyun Laboratories was DariconTM, chemically oxyphencyclimine. It is an anticholinergic drug (interferes with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine), and was marketed, starting in 1958, also by Chas. Pfizer and Co., as an antispasmodic drug for the treatment of peptic ulcers and gastrointestinal spasms. It has been discontinued in the United States, as peptic ulcers are now treated with antibiotics, but it is still marketed worldwide for certain other applications.

Final Years

Melville Sahyun formally retired and closed his enterprise in 1973. He died in Santa Barbara in 1977 of cardiovascular complications. Overall he received over 40 patents, published 80 scientific papers and edited two books.