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Medicine: Explorers of the Cell

3 minute read
TIME

Cells, the basic units of life, are microscopic, highly complex and surprisingly autonomous creations. They take in and use nutrients, resist biological attackers, reproduce and produce the products that their host organisms need in order to exist. Knowledge of the structural and functional organization of cells is essential to the understanding and control of most of the diseases to which man is heir. Last week Sweden’s Karolinska Institute! honored the three men whose work has provided scientists with just such knowledge. The $125,000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Dr. Albert Claude, 75, of the Free University of Brussels’ Institut Jules Bordet; Dr. Christian R. de Duve, 57, of New York’s Rockefeller University and Belgium’s University of Louvain; and Dr. George E. Palade, 61, of Yale University’s School of Medicine.

The triple award was appropriate, for both De Duve and Palade based their own work on the pioneering studies of Claude. All three men did the major and most significant parts of their work at Rockefeller University, which has produced twelve other Nobel laureates.

Claude, Belgian-bred but a naturalized American, laid the foundation for modern cell biology with his work at Rockefeller U. between 1929 and 1949.

Prior to that time, cells were still largely scientific terra incognita. By using the electron microscope, which had recently been developed, Claude taught scientists to explore these miniature worlds and to map them. He also developed techniques for separating cell components in a centrifuge in order to help determine their functions.

Palade, a Rumanian-born researcher who joined Rockefeller U. in 1946, combined Claude’s two techniques to learn even more about cell structure. He delineated the fine structure of the mitochondria. These are bacteria-like bodies that probably joined the cell early in the evolutionary process and have lived in a symbiotic relationship with it ever since, helping it to “breathe.” He also discovered and described the small granular components called ribosomes, which were later found to help manufacture the proteins essential for the proper functioning of the cell.

Aggressive Enzymes. De Duve, a Belgian citizen, in 1962 joined Rockefeller U., where he continued to refine the fractionalization techniques developed by Claude. His studies led to the discovery of lysosomes, aggressive enzymes that work as a sort of digestive system, breaking down the substances ingested by the cell—and in some diseases or disorders, destroying the cell itself.

Without the understanding of cellular functions, explains De Duve, most modern drugs and disease control would not be possible. “We are sick because our cells are sick. We cannot make ourselves well unless we know what is happening inside our cells.” In fact, most human diseases—from some hereditary disorders to such still incompletely understood ailments as cancer—are traceable to cellular malfunctions. The work of this year’s Nobel laureates helps point the way toward their correction.

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