The Neuro Nobels
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NEURO NOBELS Richard J. Barohn, MD Gertrude and Dewey Ziegler Professor of Neurology University Distinguished Professor Vice Chancellor for Research President Research Institute Research & Discovery Director, Frontiers: The University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Grand Rounds Institute February 14, 2018 1 Alfred Nobel 1833-1896 • Born Stockholm, Sweden • Father involved in machine tools and explosives • Family moved to St. Petersburg when Alfred was young • Father worked on armaments for Russians in the Crimean War… successful business/ naval mines (Also steam engines and eventually oil).. made and lost fortunes • Alfred and brothers educated by private teachers; never attended university or got a degree • Sent to Sweden, Germany, France and USA to study chemical engineering • In Paris met the inventor of nitroglycerin Ascanio Sobrero • 1863- Moved back to Stockholm and worked on nitro but too dangerous.. brother killed in an explosion • To make it safer to use he experimented with different additives and mixed nitro with kieselguhr, turning liquid into paste which could be shaped into rods that could be inserted into drilling holes • 1867- Patented this under name of DYNAMITE • Also invented the blasting cap detonator • These inventions and advances in drilling changed construction • 1875-Invented gelignite, more stable than dynamite and in 1887, ballistics, predecessor of cordite • Overall had over 350 patents 2 Alfred Nobel 1833-1896 The Merchant of Death • Traveled much of his business life, companies throughout Europe and America • Called " Europe's Richest Vagabond" • Solitary man / depressive / never married but had several love relationships • No children • This prompted him to rethink how he would be • Wrote poetry in English, was considered remembered scandalous/blasphemous. Some were first published • His one page will established 5 Nobel Prizes: in 2003 and 2010 Physics, Chemistry, Medicine or Physiology, • Interested in philosophy Literature; and "furtherance of peace". • Brother died and a newspaper mistakenly thought it Awarded annually out of Stockholm (except was his death and wrote obituary describing him as" Peace in Norway/Oslo) the Merchant of Death" • First prizes awarded 1901 • Economics prize came later 3 Neuro Nobel Prize Winners *Green = European ; Blue = American Name Year Topic Ivan Pavlov 1904 Conditioned reflex Santiago Ramon y Cajal & Camillo Golgi 1906 Structure of the nervous system Julius Wagner-Jauregg 1927 Malaria therapy for dementia paralytica Edgar Adrian & Sir Charles Scott Sherrington 1932 Function of neurons/ Neurophysiology reflexes Sir Henry Hallett Dale & Otto Loewi 1936 Chemical transmission of nerve impulses Joseph Erlanger & Herbert Spencer Gasser 1944 Functions of single nerve fibres Carl Ferdinand Cori, Gerty Theresa Cori & Bernardo 1947 Discovery of the catalytic conversion of glycogen Alberto Houssay 4 Neuro Nobel Prize Winners *Blue = American; Green = European Name Year Topic Walter Rudolf Hess & Antonio 1949 Interbrain coordinator internal organ activity/therapeutic value of leucotomy Caetano Egas Moniz Sir John Carew Eccles, Sir Alan 1963 Excitation & inhibition in the peripheral & central portions of the nerve cell Lloyd Hodgkin & Sir Andrew membrane Fielding Huxley Ragnar Granit, Haldan Keffer 1967 Neurophysiology of vision-retina Hartline, George Wald Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler, 1970 Discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in nerve terminals & the Julius Axelrod mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation Baruch S. Blumberg & D. Carleton 1976 New mechanisms for origin & dissemination of infection diseases Gajdusek Allan M. Cormack & Sir Godfrey 1979 Development of computer assisted tomography Hounsfield Roger Sperry, David Hubel & 1981 Information processing in the visual system Torsten Wiesel Rita Levi-Montalcini 1986 Nerve growth factors Stanley Prusiner 1997 Discovery of prions; a new biological principle of infection 5 Neuro Nobel Prize Winners *Green = European; Blue = American Name Year Topic Arvid Carlosson, Paul Greengard, & 2000 Signal transduction in the nervous system/learning Eric Kandel Paul Lauterbur & Sir Peter Mansfield 2003 Magnetic resonance imaging Richard Axel & Linda B. Buck 2004 Odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system May-Britt Moser, John O’Keefe, 2014 Cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain Edvard I. Moser Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Robash & 2017 Circadian Rhythm Michael W. Young 6 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov MD 1849-1936 • Born in a Central Russian farming village, Ryazan. Father was a Russian orthodox priest-expected Pavlov to enter into local seminary • Received free education (primary and seminary) made possible by Czar Alexander II for gifted/poor students • In seminary, he read Darwin “Origins” and Ivan Sechenov’s “Reflexes of the Brain” • Left seminary (without graduating), enrolled at the Univ. of St. Petersburg where he studied Medicine/Natural Science • Sechenov was the Professor of physiology • Graduated in 1875 • Research was his goal, not to practice • Won 2 year fellowship in Germany (Leipzig/Breslau) investigating circulation and gastric secretion • Studied experimental pharmacology back in St. Petersburg • Doctorate on centrifugal nerves of the heart (discovered independently of Gaskel special tropic nerves of the heart 7 • 1891-Professor of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine • Researched until he died in 1936, he was 86 years old Ivan Pavlov MD In 1890s: Digestion . Surgically created dog’s stomach a pouch with a fistula implanted (Pavlov's pouch) in order to observe secretion of gastric juices when dogs began to eat without contamination of food. These findings about gastric secretions led to the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in the 1904 book The Work of Research in 4 Fields: The Digestive Glands (right), published in 1897 in Russia and translated to English in 1. Cardiac physiology 1902. 2. Digestion . In 1907, became full member in the 3. Central Nervous System Russian Academy of Sciences. 8 4. Psychophysiology Ivan Pavlov MD and The Conditioned Reflex 1897-1900 : Observed the following in the course of gastric reflex research • Dogs would secrete gastric juices and saliva when saw or heard keeper- initially this was considered a nuisance • Recognized there must be an explanation since there was no food in the dogs mouth. The dog realized mealtime was near • Thoughts produced secretions • A “psychic secretion” is due to a reflex in the brain caused by the stimulus of sight or sound of the person who was 9 usually bringing food. Early Experiments of the Ivan Pavlov MD Conditioned Reflex • 1902-Began to study how and when such a stimulus was capable of causing secretions. • Instead of stomach pouch with fistula he implanted a fistula in salivary gland to a collection/recording device • Dogs trained to stand on the table- praised, pelted or fed • Faced wall w/ window; bowl of food could be placed in • When dog had food in it’s mouth-saliva flowed • FOOD=UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS • SALIVARY RESPONSE=UNCONDITIONED REFLEX 10 IVAN PAVLOV M.D. SOUND = CONDITIONED SALIVARY STIMULUS RESPONSE=CONDITIONED REFLEX Sound (ring, bell, buzzer) After a number of sequences, in preceded food drop bowl by sound alone caused saliva to flow. various amounts of time, usually 5 to 30 seconds. 11 1927 Ivan Pavlov MD Conditioned Reflex Did not believe this was a psychological process-but a physiologic one. Many variations on experiment Claimed indebtedness to Descartes and Sechenov Light instead of sound Change length of time between neutral stimulus and food drop Neutral stimulus could be made into conditioned stimulus w/ varying degrees of ease • Neutral odor might require >20 pairings Pavlov considered unconditional response a brain reflex • Rotation of object in dogs view might Conditioned response was a result of new reflexive pathways require >5 pairings created by conditioning process in the cortex12 • Sounding bizarre might require only 1 Early Neuroplasticity concept Ivan Pavlov MD His Dogs While he experimented on He erected a stone dog dogs, he took great care of statue in the courtyard of them and loved them. He did the Institute of not destroy them. Experimental Medicine Considered them man’s best (below) friend and science martyrs 13 Pavlov’s Dogs 14 Ivan Pavlov MD Anti-Semitism • Attributed negative dimensions of Bolshevism to Jewish influence • 1928 he complained to Gantt that the Jews occupied “high position everywhere” and that it was “a shame Russians can not be rulers of their own land” • 1935/1936 when he expressed a more positive attitude towards Bolsheviks he minimized the Jewish presence in the communist party as a “thin stratum” • 1934/1935 even Pavlov was scolding the Jews and on learning one woman among his listeners was Jewish he said : “Why didn’t anyone warn me?” Lina Stern and Ivan Pavlov among15 the delegates of XIV International Congress of Physiology, Rome 1932 Nobel Prize 1906 Visualizing the Nervous System with New Microscopic Staining Techniques Camillo Golgi 1843-1926 Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1852-1924 16 Santiago Ramón y Cajal MD 1852-1934 Humble Origins • Born in Petilla de Aragón in Navarre, Spain (in the Pyrenees) a region occupied by baturros (people who are not very bright) • Father-Justo Ramón Casasús-struggling barber surgeon, second class who amazingingly got a medical degree at University of Zaragoza- country doctor, then anatomy teacher • Cajal’s teachers declared him a dolt • Apprenticed