Harry Grundfest

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Harry Grundfest (born January 10, 1904 in Minsk , † October 10, 1983 in New York City ) was an American neurophysiologist .

Life

Grundfest was born as the son of Aaron Grundfest (1873-1931), a rabbi , and his wife Gertrude (1880-1957) in the Russian Empire . In 1913 the family emigrated to the United States of America with their three sons and one daughter . After graduating from high school in Kearny, New Jersey in 1921 , he studied at Columbia University (1925 Bachelor , 1926 Master ). In 1930 he received his doctorate in zoology and physiology . He continued his work as a postdoc at Columbia University. This was followed by stays at Johns Hopkins University , Swathmore College and the Department of Physiology at Cornell Medical School , where he met Herbert Gasser . With Gasser he went to the Rockefeller Institute in 1935 , where he stayed for almost ten years. At the end of his work at Gasser he had a broad knowledge of biology , comparative anatomy of the nervous system and electrical engineering .

During World War II , Grundfest did research on nerve generation issues at the Climatic Research Unit at Fort Monmouth and wound healing at the Wound Ballistic Unit at Princeton University .

In 1945, Grundfest moved to the newly founded Laboratory for Neurophysiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons , where he worked with David Nachmansohn . Columbia University was to become the foundation of the permanent establishment. In 1947 he became an assistant professor and in 1949 an associate professor of neurology.

In the McCarthy era , Grundfest was suspected of supporting communism , with no evidence against him . His passport was invalidated and in 1953 he had to testify before a committee on the allegations. He denied this and refused to give evidence of his political views and those of colleagues. The allegations resulted in government research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) being canceled for Grundfest. David Nachmanson broke off working with him, he had to leave the shared laboratory and downsize his work group. Dominick P. Purpura was Grundfest's most important collaboration partner until the early 1960s. With the end of the McCarthy era, Grundfest was able to expand its research activities again. New premises and equipment as well as a working group of initially one and later two dozen scientists formed the basis for one of the best neurophysiological laboratories of the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1962, Grundfest was Professor of Neurology at Columbia University. In 1976 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . His students included u. a. the later Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel .

Grundfest was married to Rose Danzig from 1925, the couple had a daughter.

Act

Harry Grundfest performed basic research, in particular on the excitability of a wide range of animal cells and tissues. He started from a mosaic structure of the cell membrane , which guarantees different functions in different segments. With Herbert Gasser he investigated different types of nerve fibers and the influence of their properties on the cumulative action potential of nerves. They described the relationship between nerve fiber diameter and conduction speed. When Grasser received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1944 (together with Joseph Erlanger ), he paid tribute to the work of his assistant in the acceptance speech. With David Nachmansohn, Grundfest researched the role of acetylcholine (ACh) in signal transmission between cells.

He was the author of over 500 articles in professional journals.

"If you want to understand the brain you're going to have to take a reductionist approach, one cell at a time."

- Narrated by his student Eric Kandel

Publications (selection)

  • HS Gasser, H. Grundfest: Action And Excitability In Mammalian A Fibers. In: American Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content. 117, 1936, pp. 113-133, doi: 10.1152 / ajplegacy.1936.117.1.113 .
  • HS Gasser, H. Grundfest: Axon Diameters in Relation to the Spike Dimensions and the Conduction Velocity in Mammalian A Fibers. In: American Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content. 127, 1939, pp. 393-414, doi: 10.1152 / ajplegacy.1939.127.2.393 .
  • H. Grundfest, B. Campbell: Origin, Conduction and Termination of Impulses in the Dorsal Spino-Cerebellar Tract of Cats. In: Journal of Neurophysiology. 5, 1942, pp. 275-294, doi: 10.1152 / jn.1942.5.4.275 .
  • P. Usherwood, H. Grundfest: Peripheral Inhibition in Skeletal Muscle of Insects. In: Journal of Neurophysiology. 28, 1965, pp. 497-518, doi: 10.1152 / jn.1965.28.3.497 .
  • H. Grundfest: The mechanisms of discharge of the electric organs in relation to general and comparative electrophysiology. In: Prog Biophys Biophys Chem. 7, 1957, pp. 1-85. PMID 13485186 .
  • H. Grundfest: Electrical Inexcitability of Synapses and Some Consequences in the Central Nervous System. In: Physiological Reviews. 37, 1957, pp. 337-361, doi: 10.1152 / physrev.1957.37.3.337 .
  • Y. Nakamura, S. Nakajima, H. Grundfest: The action of tetrodotoxin on electrogenic components of squid giant axons. In: J. Gen. Physiol. 48, 1965, pp. 975-996. PMID 5855512 .

literature

  • John P. Reuben: Harry Grundfest 1904–1983. National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC 1995.
  • Eric R. Kandel : In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind . WW Norton & Company, 2007, ISBN 978-0-393-32937-7 , pp. 56f.
  • Robert L. Schoenfeld: Exploring the Nervous System: With Electronic Tools, An Institutional Base, A Network of Scientists. Universal Publishers, 2006, ISBN 1-58112-461-9 , pp. 159ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Harry Grundfest; Professor of Neurology . In: The New York Times . October 12, 1983.
  2. ^ Reuben, p. 152.
  3. ↑ Schoenfeld, p. 159f.
  4. ↑ Eric R. Kandel: In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind . WW Norton & Company, 2007, ISBN 978-0-393-32937-7 , pp. 56f.
  5. ↑ Kandel, p. 57.
  6. ↑ Reuben, pp. 153f.
  7. ↑ Schoenfeld, p. 161.
  8. ↑ Kandel, p. 57.
  9. ^ Reuben, p. 155.
  10. ^ Reuben, p. 158.
  11. ^ Health Research Council of the City of New York: Five Year Report. P. 88.
  12. ^ Reuben, p. 152.
  13. ↑ Schoenfeld, p. 160.
  14. ^ Reuben, p. 151.
  15. ↑ Claudia Dreifus: A Quest to Understand How Memory Works . In: The New York Times . March 5, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Grundfest, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American neurophysiologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Minsk
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1983
Place of death New York City