SAN DIEGO — Dr. George Palade, who won a Nobel Prize in 1974 for his work isolating and identifying cell structure and helped create one of the leading cell biology programs in the nation at the University of California, San Diego, has died. He was 95.
Palade died Tuesday, the university announced.
He was born in Romania, earned his medical degree there and came to the United States in 1946.
During the 1950 s and 60 s, Palade took advantage of new techniques to understand the cell structure, its function and its chemistry. Using those techniques, he identified the function of, among other things, mitochondria, the power plants of the cell, and ribosomes, the protein-making machinery.
Working with Albert Claude at what is now known as Rockefeller University in New York, Palade began developing ways to separate cellular components.
Palade also discovered and studied the endoplasmic reticulum, a system of folded membranes that permeates the cytoplasm of cells and provides a large surface area for chemical reactions. He showed that the endoplasmic reticulum is a vital component of all types of body cells except the mature red blood cell.
The work of Palade and his fellow scientists earned them the 1974 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
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