|
Christian Rene de Duve
(1917)
Belgian cytologist and biochemist who discovered lysosomes (the digestive
organelles of the cell) and peroxisomes (organelles that are the site
of metabolic processes involving hydrogen peroxide). For this work he
shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Albert
Claude and George Palade.
De Duve's discovery of lysosomes arose out of his research on the enzymes
involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates by the liver. While using
Claude's technique of separating the components of cells by spinning
them in a centrifuge, he noticed that the cells' release of an enzyme
called acid phosphatase increased in proportion to the amount of damage
done to the cells during centrifugation. De Duve reasoned that the acid
phosphatase was enclosed within the cell in some kind of membranous
envelope that formed a self-contained organelle. He calculated the probable
size of this organelle, christened it the lysosome, and later identified
it in electron microscope pictures. De Duve's discovery of lysosomes
answered the question of how the powerful enzymes used by cells to digest
nutrients are kept separate from other cell components.
In 1947 de Duve joined the faculty of the Catholic University of Louvain,
Belg., where he had received his M.D. in 1941 and a master's degree
in chemistry in 1946. From 1962 he simultaneously headed research laboratories
at Louvain, where he became emeritus professor in 1985, and at Rockefeller
University, New York City, where he was named emeritus professor in
1988.
|