Bernard Katz

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Sir Bernard Katz

Sir Bernard Katz (born March 26, 1911 in Leipzig , † April 20, 2003 in London ) was a German-English biophysicist , neurophysiologist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine .

Life

Bernhard Katz was born the son of the fur trader Max Katz and Eugenie Rabinowitz into a family of Russian-Jewish origin. After attending the König-Albert-Gymnasium , Katz studied medicine at the University of Leipzig from 1929, where he received his doctorate in physiology in 1934 thanks to the advocacy of his doctoral supervisor Martin Gildemeister . During his studies, Katz joined the Hatikwah Jewish student association , whose forced dissolution he experienced in 1933 as its chairman. After emigrating to England in February 1935, which was necessary for him because of his Jewish origins , he researched and taught with interruptions at University College London . In 1938 he received his doctorate there again with Archibald Vivian Hill (Phil. D.) and was then in Australia with John C. Eccles , after which he served for a time during World War II as a radar operator in the Royal Australian Air Force . In 1945 he married Marguerite Penly and they had two children. In 1946 he was back in London at University College, where he became professor of biophysics in 1952 and retired in 1978.

After Henry Dale and Otto Loewi had demonstrated the role of acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter, Katz investigated the exact membrane-biophysical mechanism of the release at the nerve-muscle connections with micropipettes, with which he measured the end-face potential (EPP) on biomembranes . He discovered a noise even in the absence of a stimulus, but this disappeared when the acetylcholine antagonist curare was injected, which therefore excluded a measurement error. From this, Katz developed the hypothesis that neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine are only released in packets ( quantized ). If the nerve fiber is not excited, the release occurs randomly (background noise), but increases significantly if the nerve fiber has been excited. He summarized his research in 1966 in his book Nerve, Muscle and Synapse (McGraw Hill, New York).

For his work on the quantized form of synaptic information transmission , he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1970 alongside Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod . In 1952 he was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society , which in 1967 awarded him the Copley Medal . In 1969 the award-winning researcher was knighted . In 1982 he was accepted into the Order Pour le mérite for Science and the Arts . In 1989 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina , in 1990 he received the Ralph W. Gerard Prize .

The Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation is named after him, according to which the resting membrane potential of cells can be calculated.

Honors

In 1969 Katz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and in 1976 to the National Academy of Sciences .

literature

Web links

Commons : Bernard Katz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bund der Albertiner eV
  2. ↑ Hatikwah files in the Leipzig University Archives, Sig. Rep. 02/16/03 / J / 4.
  3. ↑ (translation :) Bernhard Katz: Nerve, muscle and synapse. Introduction to Electrophysiology. Stuttgart 1971.
  4. ↑ U. Müller: The structure of the ion theory of excitation by AL Hodgkin, AF Huxley and B. Katz. Tecklenburg 1985.
  5. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter K. (PDF; 670 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed March 28, 2018 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Katz, Bernard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Katz, Bernhard (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British biophysicist, neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2003
Place of death London