2. ∗ George Emil Palade was a famous Romanian
cell biologist and physiologist whose work
laid the foundations for modern cell biology.
∗ He won the 1974 Nobel Prize “for
discoveries concerning the structural and
functional organization of the cell”.
∗ He was a professor at the Rockefeller and
Yale universities and founding member of
the American Society for Cell Biology .
3. ∗ George Emil Palade was born in 1912
in Iasi, eastern Romania. He attended
Alexandru Hasdeu High school in
Buzau before studying Medicine at
the University of Bucharest in 1930.
In 1940s, he received a 2-year
fellowship as a visiting professor at
the Rockefeller University in New
York City. In 1953, he became
associate member of the Rockefeller
University, and in 1956, he worked
there as a professor of cell biology.
Biography
4. ∗ In 1950s, Palade developed a method of separating cell
components, known as “cell fractionation”, in which cells are
broken apart and components are separated based on their
density, using a centrifuge.
∗ He discovered the ribosome, and explained the way proteins
are transported out of the cell.
5. ∗ In 1964, he gave his name
to Weibel-Palade bodies (which
he identified with the anatomist
Ewald Weibel), components of
the cells which make up the thin
lining of blood vessels and the
heart and which play an
important role in blood
coagulation.
∗ In 1973, he moved to Yale, where
he became the chairman of the
new department of cell biology.
7. Stockholm,10 December 1974
In 1974, he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or
Medicine for his contributions to the understanding of
cell structure, chemistry and function (shared with
Albert Claude and Christian de Duve).
