Martin Rodbell

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Martin Rodbell
National Institute of Health
Duke University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Martin Rodbell (December 1, 1925

G-proteins. He shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alfred G. Gilman
for "their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells."

Biography

Rodbell was born in

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina where he worked until his retirement in 1994. He was also adjunct professor of Cell Biology at Duke University (from 1991 to 1998)[4] and adjunct professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[5][6]
He died in Chapel Hill of multiple organ failure after an extended illness.

Research

Reflecting the increasingly common analogies between computer science and biology in the 1960s, Rodbell believed that the fundamental information processing systems of both computers and biological organisms were similar. He asserted that individual cells were analogous to cybernetic systems made up of three distinct molecular components: discriminators, transducers, and amplifiers (otherwise known as effectors). The discriminator, or cell receptor, receives information from outside the cell; a cell transducer processes this information across the cell membrane; and the amplifier intensifies these signals to initiate reactions within the cell or to transmit information to other cells.

In December 1969 and early January 1970, Rodbell was working with a laboratory team that studied the effect of the hormone

Earl W. Sutherland
had theorized. In the language of signal transduction, the G-protein, activated by GTP, was the principal component of the transducer, which was the crucial link between the discriminator and the amplifier. Later, Rodbell postulated, and then provided evidence for, additional G-proteins at the cell receptor that could inhibit and activate transduction, often at the same time. In other words, cellular receptors were sophisticated enough to have several different processes going on simultaneously.

Awards and honors

See also

References

  1. ^ "Martin Rodbell - Biographical". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2015-05-15.
  2. ISBN 9780195222029
    . Retrieved 2015-05-15.
  3. ^ "The 'G' Man - From Grocery Delivery Boy to the U-Dub". www.washington.edu. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  4. ^ Bulletins of Duke University (from 1991 to 1998), published by Duke University
  5. PMID 9872722
    .
  6. ^ Barnes, Bart (December 11, 1998). "Nobel Winner Martin Rodbell Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  7. American Academy of Achievement
    .

External links
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