Rodbell, Martin

▪ 1999

      American biochemist (b. Dec. 1, 1925, Baltimore, Md.—d. Dec. 7, 1998, Chapel Hill, N.C.), was corecipient (with Alfred G. Gilman) of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering that certain proteins—the so-called G proteins—play a crucial role in cell communication. The son of a grocer, Rodbell set out to fulfill his father's dream that he become a doctor, but he soon found that a career in the biological sciences was his true calling. After service in the Pacific as a U.S. Navy radio operator, which interrupted his undergraduate education, he earned a B.A. (1949) from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and a Ph.D. (1954) in biochemistry from the University of Washington. As a researcher at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., for nearly four decades, Rodbell investigated the effects of hormones on cells, especially fat cells. It was in the 1960s, after hearing a lecture by another future Nobel laureate, Earl W. Sutherland, Jr., about the latter's studies of the signaling action of hormones, that Rodbell began to elucidate the process of signal transduction—that is, how chemical messages from outside a cell are transmitted across the cell membrane to the interior. He showed that previously unknown molecules, which proved to be proteins, function in relaying chemical signals from the exterior to the interior. Because these proteins are activated by the energy-rich molecules guanosine diphosphate (GDP) and guanosine triphosphate (GTP), they were designated G proteins by Gilman and his associates. From 1985 until his retirement in 1994, Rodbell continued his work on signal transduction at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, N.C.

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▪ American biochemist

born Dec. 1, 1925, Baltimore, Md., U.S.

died Dec. 7, 1998, Chapel Hill, N.C.

      American biochemist who was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery in the 1960s of natural signal transducers called G-proteins that help cells in the body communicate with each other. He shared the prize with American pharmacologist Alfred G. Gilman (Gilman, Alfred G.), who later proved Rodbell's hypothesis by isolating the G-protein, which is so named because it binds to nucleotides (nucleotide) called guanosine (guanine) diphosphate and guanosine triphosphate, or GDP and GTP.

      After graduating from Johns Hopkins University (B.A., 1949) and from the University of Washington (Ph.D., 1954), Rodbell began his career as a biochemist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. From 1985 until his retirement in 1994 he worked at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, near Durham, North Carolina.

      Prior to Rodbell's research, scientists believed that only two substances—a hormone receptor and an interior cell enzyme—were responsible for cellular communication (cell). Rodbell, however, discovered that the G-protein acted as an intermediate signal transducer between the two. Despite initial opposition, his theories gained acceptance, and subsequently more than 20 G-proteins were identified. His research led to better understanding of many diseases, including cholera, diabetes, alcoholism, and cancer.

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