Bert Sakmann
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Bert Sakmann
German biophysicist (1942–
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Sakmann attended the universities of Tübingen and Munich, and gained his MD from the University of Göttingen. He became a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich (1969–70), and subsequently spent two years as a British Council Fellow at the Biophysics Department of University College, London (1971–73). In 1974 he joined the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry at the University of Göttingen, becoming head of the membrane physiology unit in 1983 and director in 1985. Two years later he was appointed professor in the department of cell physiology. In 1989 he moved to Heidelberg as director of the cell physiology department of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research.
While working at Göttingen in the mid-1970s, in collaboration with the biophysicist Erwin Neher, Sakmann developed the so-called ‘patch-clamp’ technique for studying ion channels in cell membranes. This, together with their descriptions of the biophysical properties of the channels, earned them the 1991 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.
Sakmann, Bert, 1942-, German biophysicist, M.D. Univ. of Göttingen, Germany, 1974. He has been a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen since 1974. Sakmann received the 1991 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Edwin Neher for their joint discoveries concerning the functioning of ion channels in cell membranes. Neher and Sakmann are credited with establishing the existence and describing the functioning of ion channels and with developing the patch-clamp technique, a method of measuring the tiny electrical currents produced as the ions pass through the channels. Their work brought about a revolution in the field of cell biology, providing a new approach for the study of disease mechanisms and the development of drug treatments.
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Bert Sakmann
| Bert Sakmann | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | June 12, 1942 [citation needed] |
| Institutions | Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology |
| Notable awards | Harvey Prize (1991) Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1991) |
Bert Sakmann (born 12 June 1942) is a German cell physiologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Erwin Neher in 1991 for their work on "the function of single ion channels in cells," and invention of the patch clamp.[1][2] Bert Sakmann was Professor at Heidelberg University and is an Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. Since 2008 he leads an emeritus research group at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology.
Born in Stuttgart, Sakmann enrolled in Volksschule in Lindau, and completed the Wagenburg gymnasium in Stuttgart in 1961. He studied medicine from 1967 onwards in Tübingen, Freiburg, Berlin, Paris and Munich. After completing his medical exams at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, he became a medical assistant in 1968 at Munich University, while also working as a scientific assistant (Wissenschaftlicher Assistant) at Munich's Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, in the Neurophysiology Department under Otto Detlev Creutzfeldt. In 1971 he moved to University College London, where he worked in the Department of Biophysics under Bernard Katz. In 1974, he completed his medical dissertation, under the title Elektrophysiologie der neuralen Helladaptation in der Katzenretina (Electrophysiology of Neural Light Adaption in the Cat Retina) in the Medical Faculty of Göttingen University.[1]
Afterwards (still in 1974), Sakmann returned to the lab of Otto Creutzfeldt, who had meanwhile moved to the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. Sakmann joined the membrane biology group in 1979.
In 1986, he and Erwin Neher were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1987, he received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is the highest honour awarded in German research. In 1991, he received the Harvey Prize and the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine along with Neher, with whom he had worked in Göttingen.[1]
On 2 June 2009, Dr. Peter Gruss, the president of the Max Planck Society, announced that Sakmann would serve as the scientific director of the Max Planck Florida Institute, the organization’s biomedical research facility at Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida.
Sakmann is the founder of the Bert-Sakmann-Stiftung.
References
- ^ a b c Nobel autobiography
- ^ Hamill, O. P.; Marty, A.; Neher, E.; Sakmann, B.; Sigworth, F. J. (1981). "Improved patch-clamp techniques for high-resolution current recording from cells and cell-free membrane patches". Pfl�gers Archiv European Journal of Physiology 391 (2): 85. doi:10.1007/BF00656997. PMID 6270629.
Bibliography
- Betz, W.; Sakmann, B. (1971). ""Disjunction" of frog neuromuscular synapses by treatment with proteolytic enzymes". Nature: New biology 232 (29): 94–95. PMID 4328253.
- Betz, W.; Sakmann, B. (1973). "Effects of proteolytic enzymes on function and structure of frog neuromuscular junctions". The Journal of physiology 230 (3): 673–688. PMC 1350622. PMID 4352108. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1350622.
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Mentioned in
Edwin Neher
(German biologist)
Erwin Neher
(German biophysicist)
Year 1976
(in Science & Technology)
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