Paul Greengard
Paul Greengard (b.
December 11,
1925) is an
American neuroscientist best known for his work on the
molecular and
cellular function of
neurons. In
2000, Greengard,
Arvid Carlsson and
Eric Kandel were awarded the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the
nervous system. He is currently
Vincent Astor Professor at
Rockefeller University [
1].
Greengard's research has focused on events inside the neuron caused by
neurotransmitters. Specifically, Greengard and his fellow researchers studied the behavior of
second messenger cascades that transform the docking of a neurotransmitter with a receptor into permanent changes in the neuron. In a series of experiments, Greengard and his colleagues showed that when
dopamine interacts with a
receptor on the
cell membrane of a neuron, it causes an increase in
cyclic AMP inside the cell. This increase of cyclic AMP, in turn activates a protein called
protein kinase A, which turns the function other proteins on or off by adding
phosphate groups in a reaction known as
phosphorylation. The proteins activated by phosphorylation can then perform a number of changes in the cell: transcribing
DNA to make new proteins, moving more receptors to the
synapse (and thus increasing the neuron's sensitivity), or moving
ion channels to the cell surface (and thus increasing the cell's excitability). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2000 "for showing how neurotransmitters act on the cell and can activate a central molecule known as
DARPP-32"
Greengard was born in
New York City. During
World War II, he served in the
United States Navy as an
electronics technician at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology working on an early warning system against Japanese
kamikaze planes. After the war, he attended
Hamilton College where he graduated in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in
mathematics and
physics. He decided against graduate school in physics because most post-war physics research was focusing on
nuclear weapons, and instead became interested in
biophysics. He began his graduate studies at
Johns Hopkins University in the lab of
Haldan Keffer Hartline. Inspired by a lecture by
Alan Hodgkin, Greengard began work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 1953, Greengard received his PhD and began postdoctoral work at the
University of London,
Cambridge University, and the
University of Amsterdam. As a professor, he has worked at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
Vanderbilt University,
Yale University, and
Rockefeller University.
Les Prix Nobel. 2001. The Nobel Prizes 2000, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, Nobel Foundation: Stockholm.
*
Nobel Prize Biography
