George Emil Palade (1912–2008) Lab Members Were Introduced to Ideas by a Founding Father of Modern Cell Biology
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NEWS & VIEWS NATURE|Vol 456|6 November 2008 OBITUARY Palade ran his laboratory very informally. There were no regular lab meetings. Instead, there were bimonthly seminars, at which George Emil Palade (1912–2008) lab members were introduced to ideas by A founding father of modern cell biology. speakers from other labs. Often Palade summarized the essence of a presentation, particularly if the speaker had failed to do so. George Emil Palade died on 7 October at ‘the Rockefeller group’ began, ending with He had the ability to link the most disparate the age of 95. He was among the greatest Porter’s departure to Harvard in 1961. In observations into a coherent and testable scientists of the twentieth century, whose fond memory of Porter’s contributions, a working hypothesis. He effortlessly passed momentous discoveries in cell biology are picture of him, with the title “Our father who this trait on to many of his students and still actively pursued by many laboratories art at Harvard”, decorated the Palade lab at postdocs, who chose their research topics worldwide. Rockefeller for many years. with very little interference from him. He The son of a philosophy professor and In parallel with his discoveries using did, however, reserve the right to challenge a teacher, Palade was born in Jassi (Iaşi), electron microscopy, Palade sought to research plans. While I was an assistant the former capital of Moldavia, the eastern understand the function of these newly professor in his lab, he suggested I set up a province of Romania. He studied medicine defined cellular structures. Biochemical cell-free system to study the initial step in at the University of Bucharest. Having the secretory pathway — a task much spent the Second World War in the easier said than done. But after two medical corps of the Romanian army, years of trying, I succeeded and he moved to Istanbul shortly before it certainly made a big difference moving on to New York City in 1946 to my career. A. CAMERANO/AP for postdoctoral studies at New York He took considerable interest in University. the papers that were published by Following a short stint there, in a his lab. Even when he was not listed life-changing event Palade was invited as an author, he meticulously edited by Albert Claude to join his laboratory and corrected each paper with his at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical immaculate handwriting at the edge Research — now Rockefeller University. or on the opposite empty page of the The previous year, Claude and his typewritten manuscripts. I treasure colleagues Keith Porter and Ernest the corrections he made on all my Fullam had published the first electron manuscripts during that time. micrograph of an animal cell grown Palade moved to Yale in 1973, in culture, describing a “lace-like where he stayed until he joined the cytoplasmic network”, later named the University of California, San Diego endoplasmic reticulum. Furthermore, (UCSD) in 1990. At both universities, Claude and his collaborators George he continued to make many crucial Hogeboom and Walter Schneider had discoveries and, as at Rockefeller, recently developed procedures involving studies with Philip Siekevitz in his lab on the built thriving departments of cell biology. At differential centrifugation to break up tissues microsome fraction were published in UCSD, he served as the first dean of scientific and to separate cellular components into three classic papers in which microsomes were affairs until his retirement at the age of 87. main fractions — nuclei, mitochondria and identified as broken and sealed bits of the Many of Palade’s students and their ‘microsomes’. So Palade joined an already endoplasmic reticulum. Subsequently, second-, third- and fourth-generation famous laboratory that was on the cusp of through in vivo labelling with 14C-leucine and ‘descendants’ are still major contributors even greater discoveries. isolation of labelled chymotrypsin protein to the field of cell biology. Among the prizes He soon became a key member of the from cell fractions, Palade and Siekevitz he was awarded are the Lasker prize, the lab, contributing vigorously to optimizing showed that this protein was primarily Gairdner award and the Louisa Gross Horwitz methods for both cell fractionation (such synthesized in microsomes. These results led Prize. He was also a joint recipient of the 1974 as introducing sucrose solutions for better to the proposal that the endoplasmic Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. preservation of cellular organelles) and reticulum is the synthesis site for secretory Palade was deeply interested in music, electron microscopy (using osmium tetroxide proteins, an idea further supported by the fine arts and history. He was an eloquent to get better contrast). These technical experiments carried out by David Sabatini speaker, and his lectures are legendary advances facilitated many pivotal discoveries and Colvin Redman, who demonstrated examples of his lucidity and passion for his by Palade and his colleagues throughout that the initial event in the protein subject. He worked productively until his the 1950s and 1960s, among them a secretion pathway was directional release late eighties, when Parkinson’s disease forced detailed description of the membranes of of nascent polypeptide chains into the him to reduce his activities. It must have mitochondria and chloroplasts. His other microsomal lumen. been hard for him to cope with these physical achievements included the discovery in 1955 With another colleague, Jim Jamieson, constraints, although his intellectual curiosity of “a small particulate component of the Palade developed the technique of pulse- and passion remained intact for much longer. cytoplasm” — often referred to as the ‘Palade chase labelling in tissue slices, which He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Farquhar, granule’ until it morphed into the ‘ribosome’ allowed the pathway of secreted proteins to two children from his first marriage and two in 1958 — and the description in 1963 with be tracked in time and traced within cells. grandchildren. Marilyn Farquhar of “junctional complexes One important, but initially controversial, Günter Blobel in various epithelia”, which connect epithelial postulate was that secretory proteins are Günter Blobel is at the Rockefeller University, cells together. transported in quanta — in vesicular carriers 1230 York Avenue, New York, With Claude moving back to Belgium that bud from a donor membrane and deliver New York 10021, USA. in 1949, the partial disassembly of their contents by fusion to a target membrane. e-mail: [email protected] 52.