Paul Greengard
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Paul Greengard
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2000
Born: 11 December 1925, New York, NY, USA
Died: 13 April 2019, New York, NY, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system”
Prize share: 1/3
Work
The nervous systems of people and animals consist of many different cells. Between the cells, signals are conveyed by special substances, known as signal substances, through contacts or synapses. At the end of the 1960s, Paul Greengard clarified how several different signal substances work. Signal substances first influence a receiver or receptor on the surface of the cells. As a result certain protein molecules are transformed through the addition or removal of phosphate groups. This regulates various functions in the cells.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
