Eric Manvers Shooter (born 18 April 1924 in Nottinghamshire, England;[1] died 21 March 2018) was an English scientist known for investigating the biochemistry of nerve growth factor (NGF).
[1] Shooter was acknowledged for his work on neurotrophins — proteins that induce the differentiation and survival of nerve cells.
At the suggestion of Joshua Lederberg he spent three years intensively studying the structure and mechanisms of the canonical neurotrophin NGF.
He also characterized the PMP22 gene in mice, defects in which cause the myelin sheath that protects nerve cells to break down in a way that resembles human neurological diseases called demyelinating peripheral neuropathies.
[5] In 2014 he endowed the Shooter Family Professorship at Stanford, currently held by the chair of neurobiology Thomas Clandinin.