Christian de Duve

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Queen Beatrix meets five Nobel Prize winners (1983): Paul Berg , Christian de Duve, Steven Weinberg , Manfred Eigen and Nicolaas Bloembergen

Christian René de Duve (born October 2, 1917 in Thames Ditton , United Kingdom ; † May 4, 2013 in Nethen ) was a Belgian biochemist , cell researcher and Nobel Prize winner .

life and work

Christian de Duve comes from a Belgian noble family . His parents had fled to England during the First World War and returned with him to Antwerp in 1920 . In 1941 he completed his medical studies, which he had begun in 1934, at the Catholic University in Leuven with a doctorate.

After studying in Stockholm and Washington, he became a professor in Leuven in 1951. He discovered two new cell components: the lysosomes , vesicles containing hydrolytic enzymes that break down defective or superfluous cell organelles or substances absorbed from outside the cell in food vacuoles , and the peroxisomes , which also have a detoxification function.

In 1960 he received the Francqui Prize , a prestigious Belgian science award , for his work on biochemistry.

In 1962 he became a professor at the Rockefeller Institute in New York , where Albert Claude carried out the first electron microscopic research on cells in the 1940s and where George Emil Palade worked.

In 1971 de Duve was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1973 he was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , since 1975 a member of the National Academy of Sciences . In 1988 he was elected an external member of the Royal Society . In 1991 he was accepted into the American Philosophical Society .

In 1974 he received, together with Claude and Palade, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into the structure and function of the organization of the cell . In the same year he founded the International Institute for Cell and Molecular Pathology (ICP) in Brussels , in whose management he was involved until his death. In 1989 he received the EB Wilson Medal and in 1967 the Canada Gairdner International Award .

On May 4, 2013, he made use of euthanasia legalized in Belgium .

Publications

  • A guided tour of the living cell. Scientific American Books, New York 1984, ISBN 0-7167-5002-3 .
    • The cell. Expedition into the basic structure of life. Spectrum of Science, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-922508-79-0 .
  • Blueprint for a cell: The nature and origin of life. Neil Patterson Publishers, Burlington 1991, ISBN 0-89278-410-5 .
    • Origin of life. Prebiotic evolution and the formation of the cell. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin / Oxford 1994, ISBN 3-86025-187-2 .
  • Vital dust: Life as a cosmic imperative. Basic Books, New York 1995, ISBN 0-465-09044-3 .
    • Born of dust. Life as a cosmic inevitability. Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg / Berlin / Oxford 1995, ISBN 3-86025-352-2 ; Rowohlt, Reinbek 1997, ISBN 3-499-60160-5 .
  • Life evolving: Molecules, Mind, and Meaning . 2002, ISBN 0-19-515605-6 .
  • Genetics of original sin: The Impact of Natural Selection on the Future of Humanity. Yale University Press, New Haven 2010, ISBN 978-0-300-16507-4 .
    • The Genetics of Original Sin. The Impact of Natural Selection on the Future of Humanity. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8274-2708-3 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Christian de Duve  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Autobiography at nobelprize.org
  2. ↑ a b Euthanasia for Nobel Prize Winners: "I will disappear, nothing will remain". In: Spiegel Online . May 6, 2013, accessed May 6, 2013.
  3. ^ Gisela Baumgart: Duve, Christian René de. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 330.
  4. ^ Entry on Duve, Christian Rene Marie Joseph de (1917 - 2013), Viscount in the archive of the Royal Society , London
personal data
SURNAME Duve, Christian de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duve, Christian René de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Thames Ditton
DATE OF DEATH 4th May 2013
Place of death Nethen