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George E Palade
Obituary
George E Palade Nobel Prize-winning cell biologist. Born Nov 19, 1912, in Iasi, Romania, he died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on Oct 7, 2008, in Del Mar, CA, USA, aged 95 years. When George Palade won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1974, he remarked, “Cell biology finally makes possible a century-old dream: that of analysis of diseases at the cellular level, the first step toward their control.” A physician-scientist, Palade defined the structure and function of cellular components—including mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and Golgi apparatus—discovered and characterised the protein-manufacturing ribosome, and characterised the pathway for protein secretion within cells. This research led to a deeper understanding of disease and laid the groundwork for protein-production techniques used throughout the biotechnology industry today and for the development of new antibiotics and drugs. In awarding the Nobel Prize to Palade, Albert Claude, and Christian de Duve, the Nobel committee said the trio was “largely responsible for the creation of modern cell biology”. Palade worked in an anatomy laboratory as a medical student at the University of Bucharest, Romania, and graduated in 1940. He worked briefly as an assistant in internal medicine and then served in the medical corps of the Romanian Army during World War II. After the war, Palade went to the USA to continue his studies. He spent a few months at New York University before moving to what is now Rockefeller University to study with Albert Claude, who pioneered techniques for fractionating cell components and was one of the first cell biologists to 1876
use the electron microscope to study subcellular structures. At Rockefeller, Palade and his colleagues developed the sucrose method of cell fractionation, a widely used technique that uses a sugar gradient to separate cellular components by their weight. He then turned to electron microscopy and worked to determine the fine structure of the mitochondria and, in 1953, discovered ribosomes. “He had the mentality of an explorer”, says David Sabatini, chairman of the cell biology department at New York University School of Medicine and one of Palade’s early collaborators at Rockefeller University. To find out about the function of the cellular components he discovered, Palade combined electron microscopy, cell fractionation, biochemical analysis, and autoradiography techniques. Palade and his colleagues traced the pathway of secretory proteins through the cell from synthesis to export. This work included a key finding that newly synthesised secretory proteins accumulate and mature in the Golgi apparatus before being secreted from the cell. Palade left Rockefeller in 1973 to begin Yale Medical School’s cell biology department. In 1990, he moved to the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego as dean of scientific affairs and professor of medicine. After his retirement in 2001, he became professor emeritus and an endowed professorship was established in his name in 2006. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Palade won a Lasker Award in 1966 and the National Medal of Science in 1986. He was a co-founder of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). In a 2002 interview with the Young Romanian Scientists’ Journal, Palade said that “the future belongs to multinational science” and that if he were to lead scientific reform in Romania he would “open the doors to encourage as many cooperative interactions and studies as possible”. Throughout his career, Palade was dedicated to science education and “strongly believed in the elimination of differences in academic resources available to people throughout the world”, says former student and collaborator Bhanu Jena, the George E Palade Distinguished professor of physiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Palade would attend poster sessions at the ASCB meetings and interact with students and postdoctoral students, recalls Peter Novick, who was recently named the first George E Palade professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Palade spoke several languages, sometimes lecturing in French, and was interested in history, music, and art. “[He] was so careful to place his findings in historical context”, says Sabatini. “It was a revolution, but still he saw his work as a continuation of the research done by scientists before him.” Palade is survived by his wife, cell biologist Marilyn Farquhar, a son, a daughter, and two stepsons. His first wife, Irina Malaxa, predeceased him.
Alison Snyder [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 372 November 29, 2008
George E Palade Nobel Prize-winning cell biologist. Born Nov 19, 1912, in Iasi, Romania, he died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on Oct 7, 2008, in Del Mar, CA, USA, aged 95 years. When George Palade won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1974, he remarked, “Cell biology finally makes possible a century-old dream: that of analysis of diseases at the cellular level, the first step toward their control.” A physician-scientist, Palade defined the structure and function of cellular components—including mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and Golgi apparatus—discovered and characterised the protein-manufacturing ribosome, and characterised the pathway for protein secretion within cells. This research led to a deeper understanding of disease and laid the groundwork for protein-production techniques used throughout the biotechnology industry today and for the development of new antibiotics and drugs. In awarding the Nobel Prize to Palade, Albert Claude, and Christian de Duve, the Nobel committee said the trio was “largely responsible for the creation of modern cell biology”. Palade worked in an anatomy laboratory as a medical student at the University of Bucharest, Romania, and graduated in 1940. He worked briefly as an assistant in internal medicine and then served in the medical corps of the Romanian Army during World War II. After the war, Palade went to the USA to continue his studies. He spent a few months at New York University before moving to what is now Rockefeller University to study with Albert Claude, who pioneered techniques for fractionating cell components and was one of the first cell biologists to 1876
use the electron microscope to study subcellular structures. At Rockefeller, Palade and his colleagues developed the sucrose method of cell fractionation, a widely used technique that uses a sugar gradient to separate cellular components by their weight. He then turned to electron microscopy and worked to determine the fine structure of the mitochondria and, in 1953, discovered ribosomes. “He had the mentality of an explorer”, says David Sabatini, chairman of the cell biology department at New York University School of Medicine and one of Palade’s early collaborators at Rockefeller University. To find out about the function of the cellular components he discovered, Palade combined electron microscopy, cell fractionation, biochemical analysis, and autoradiography techniques. Palade and his colleagues traced the pathway of secretory proteins through the cell from synthesis to export. This work included a key finding that newly synthesised secretory proteins accumulate and mature in the Golgi apparatus before being secreted from the cell. Palade left Rockefeller in 1973 to begin Yale Medical School’s cell biology department. In 1990, he moved to the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego as dean of scientific affairs and professor of medicine. After his retirement in 2001, he became professor emeritus and an endowed professorship was established in his name in 2006. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Palade won a Lasker Award in 1966 and the National Medal of Science in 1986. He was a co-founder of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). In a 2002 interview with the Young Romanian Scientists’ Journal, Palade said that “the future belongs to multinational science” and that if he were to lead scientific reform in Romania he would “open the doors to encourage as many cooperative interactions and studies as possible”. Throughout his career, Palade was dedicated to science education and “strongly believed in the elimination of differences in academic resources available to people throughout the world”, says former student and collaborator Bhanu Jena, the George E Palade Distinguished professor of physiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Palade would attend poster sessions at the ASCB meetings and interact with students and postdoctoral students, recalls Peter Novick, who was recently named the first George E Palade professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Palade spoke several languages, sometimes lecturing in French, and was interested in history, music, and art. “[He] was so careful to place his findings in historical context”, says Sabatini. “It was a revolution, but still he saw his work as a continuation of the research done by scientists before him.” Palade is survived by his wife, cell biologist Marilyn Farquhar, a son, a daughter, and two stepsons. His first wife, Irina Malaxa, predeceased him.
Alison Snyder [email protected]
www.thelancet.com Vol 372 November 29, 2008