George Emil Palade

George Emil Palade

Introductory article

Neeraja Sankaran, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (1912–) Romanian-born American cell biologist who discovered the structures and functions of many cellular organelles.

George Palade was born in Jassy, Romania to a professor of philosophy and his school-teacher wife. In 1930 he entered medical school at the University of Romania in Bucharest and while there developed an interest in doing basic research. He graduated with a degree in internal medicine in 1940 but after serving in the Romanian medical corps during World War II, moved to the USA in 1946 to a research laboratory at New York University in New York City. Within a few months he moved uptown to the Rockefeller University to work with Albert Claude. He stayed on there until 1973 during which time he progressed from assistant professor (1948) to full professor and the head of the Department of Cell Biology. In 1973 he moved to Yale University and in 1990 to the University of California at San Diego. Palade is best known for his discoveries of various structures found within cells such as mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies as well as determining the functions of many of these components. Along with Claude, the Belgian biochemist Christian de Duve and later Keith Porter, he was responsible for developing techniques and innovations in electron microscopy and

differential centrifugation – i.e. the use of progressively higher speeds of centrifugation to separate various subcellular materials in solution – to scrutinize the internal aspects of cells. Thus, Palade was one of the key figures in cell biology during the first half of the twentieth century. He showed that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) produced by the mitochondria was the currency with which living cells conducted their energy transactions. He also discovered that ribosomes were involved in protein synthesis and that the Golgi apparatus helped to manufacture certain large molecules within the cell. He also laid the groundwork for learning how various materials are transported inside and outside the cell. Among his many awards and accolades are the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 (shared with Claude and de Duve) and the National Medal of Science (US) in 1986.

Further Reading Iftimovici R (1993) George Emil Palade: Primul Roman Laureat al Premiul Nobel. Bucharest: Editura Viitorul Romanesc.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SCIENCES © 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. www.els.net

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