Bernard Katz
Source: Wikipedia: Bernard Katz
Sciences & Discovery • Historical Archive • 🇩🇪 German Empire • 3 views

Bernard Katz 🇩🇪

Sir Bernard Katz
["Biophysicist", "Nobel Prize in Medicine 1970", "Discoverer of Quantal Neurotransmission"]
Born Mar 26, 1911 🇩🇪 Leipzig, German Empire
Passed Away Apr 20, 2003 London, United Kingdom
Lifespan 92 years old
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Notice / Correction
"There is a threshold of curiosity below which science cannot thrive; one must look at the noise on the oscilloscope and ask what the universe is whispering."

Archival Overview

German-born British biophysicist who was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering that neurotransmitters are released at synapses in discrete packets or 'quanta' via calcium-mediated synaptic vesicles.

Biographical Record

Bernard Katz (1911–2003) fled Nazi Germany in 1935 as a young Jewish physician, joining A.V. Hill's biophysics laboratory at University College London. During World War II, he served as a radar officer with the Royal Australian Air Force in the Pacific theater.

Returning to UCL, Katz recorded tiny spontaneous electrical fluctuations at the frog neuromuscular junction, which he named 'miniature end-plate potentials'. In a series of brilliant papers with Paul Fatt, Katz proved that acetylcholine is stored in intracellular synaptic vesicles and discharged in all-or-none multimolecular packets ('quanta') triggered by calcium ion influx, unveiling the atomic architecture of chemical synapses.

Key Life Milestones

1952

Discovery of Quantal Release of Neurotransmitters

Demonstrated that chemical synaptic transmission occurs via the exocytosis of discrete multi-molecular packets.

1970

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine

Shared the Nobel Prize with Julius Axelrod and Ulf von Euler for discoveries concerning neurotransmitter storage and release.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Golders Green Crematorium
London, United Kingdom
GPS: 51.5767, -0.1989
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