Martin Rodbell

Martin Rodbell ( born December 1, 1925 in Baltimore, Maryland, † December 7, 1998 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) was an American biochemist. He discovered the G- proteins and was instrumental in the elucidation of their function for signal transduction in cells. For this work he received in 1994 together with Alfred G. Gilman received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Life and work

Professional career

Martin Rodbell studied at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore biology and chemistry before he completely focused on the biochemistry. In 1954 he received his doctorate at the University of Washington in Seattle. 1967-1968 Rodbell went to Switzerland and was a professor and director at the Institute of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Geneva. Between 1970 and 1985 he was Head of the Department of Cell Control at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda (Maryland).

In 1984 he was awarded, together with Alfred G. Gilman with a Gairdner Foundation International Award. In 1985, he joined as a research director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. There he directed from 1989 to 1994, the Department of signal transmission. In 1987 he was awarded, this time together with Alfred G. Gilman, the Richard Lounsbery Award, and the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of cell communication and in particular the discovery of G- proteins ". In the same year he went into retirement.

He was married to Barbara Ledermann, whose sister Susanne was a school friend of Anne Frank.

Importance of research

The main importance to scientific and medical research had Martin Rodbells work on the G- proteins that play an essential role as molecular switches in almost all signal-transducing processes of the cell. G proteins mediate the effect of hormones as well as the stimulus mediation in sensory abilities such as seeing, smelling and tasting. The research of Rodbell out the work of Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Nobel laureate in medicine in 1971, further the already recognized in the 1960s that hormones can not penetrate the cells but already act at the cell surface and trigger specific biochemical reactions in the cell. It was known that the cyclic adenosine phosphate (cAMP ) acts as a neurotransmitter by stimulating the synthesis of specific proteins and induced enzymes.

Martin Rodbell was able to show that as a substrate for a hormonal effect addition to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), another nucleotide which is necessary guanosine triphosphate (GTP ). At the Hormin Glukagen his research group have shown that an effective binding of the hormone to the cell membrane only in the presence of Guanosintriphosphats is possible. From the 1960s to 1970s Rodbell demonstrated that three functional units are required for signal transmission from the outside of the cell into the cell interior:

• Receptor or a discriminator which recognizes the incoming signals,
• A transducer which converts the signal, and
• An amplifier which releases a chemical messenger in a sufficient amount in the inside of the body

The main discovery was the identification Rodbells of the transducer, which was driven by the energy-rich guanosine -5- triphosphate. Together with Alfred G. Gilman, he was able to show that these transducers called G- proteins act as switches in the cell and convert the signals from the outside and pass on to the amplifier proteins.