Albert Claude | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1899-08-24)24 August 1899 Longlier,Neufchâteau, Belgium |
| Died | 22 May 1983(1983-05-22) (aged 83) Brussels, Belgium |
| Citizenship | Belgium andUnited States |
| Alma mater | University of Liège |
| Known for | Cell fractionation Electron microscopy in biology |
| Spouse | Julia Gilder |
| Children | Philippa |
| Parents |
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| Awards | Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize in 1970 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 1971 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cell biology |
| Institutions | Rockefeller University Institut Jules Bordet Université libre de Bruxelles Université catholique de Louvain |
Albert Claude (French pronunciation:[albɛʁklod]; 24 August 1899 – 22 May 1983) was aBelgian-Americancell biologist andmedical doctor who shared theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 withChristian de Duve andGeorge Emil Palade. His elementary education started in a comprehensive primary school at Longlier, his birthplace. He served in theBritish Intelligence Service during theFirst World War, and got imprisoned inconcentration camps twice. In recognition of his service, he was granted enrolment at theUniversity of Liège inBelgium to study medicine without any formal education required for the course. He earned hisDoctor of Medicine degree in 1928. Devoted to medical research, he initially joined German institutes in Berlin. In 1929 he found an opportunity to join theRockefeller Institute inNew York. At Rockefeller University he made his most groundbreaking achievements in cell biology. In 1930 he developed the technique ofcell fractionation, by which he discovered the agent of theRous sarcoma, as well as components ofcell organelles such as themitochondrion,chloroplast,endoplasmic reticulum,Golgi apparatus,ribosome, andlysosome. He was the first to employ theelectron microscope in the field of biology. In 1945 he published the first detailed structure of cell. His collective works established the complex functional and structural properties of cells.[1]
Claude served as director atJules Bordet Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment andLaboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire et Cancérologie inLouvain-la-Neuve; Professor at theFree University of Brussels, theUniversity of Louvain, andRockefeller University. For his pioneering works he received theLouisa Gross Horwitz Prize in 1970, together with his studentGeorge Palade andKeith Porter, thePaul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 1971, and theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Palade and his friendChristian de Duve.[2]
Albert Claude was born in 1899 (but according to civil register 1898) in Longlier, a hamlet inNeufchâteau, Belgium, to Florentin Joseph Claude and Marie-Glaudice Watriquant Claude. He was the youngest among three brothers and one sister. His father was a Paris-trained baker and ran a bakery-cum-general store at Longlier valley near railroad station. His mother, who developedbreast cancer in 1902, died when he was seven years old. He spent his pre-school life with his ailing mother. He started education in Longlier Primary School, a pluralistic school of single room, mixed grades, and all under one teacher. In spite of the inconveniences, he remarked the education system as "excellent." He served as a bell boy, ringing the church bell every morning at 6. Due to economic depression the family moved toAthus, a prosperous region with steel mills, in 1907. He entered German-speaking school. After two years he was asked to look after his uncle who was disabled with cerebral haemorrhage in Longlier. He dropped out of school and practically nursed his uncle for several years.[1] At the outbreak of theFirst World War he was apprenticed to steel mills and worked as an industrial designer. Inspired byWinston Churchill, then BritishMinister of War, he joined the resistance and volunteered inBritish Intelligence Service in which he served during the whole war. At the end of the war he was decorated with the Interallied Medal along withveteran status.[3] He then wanted to continue education. Since he had no formal secondary education, particularly required for medicine course, such as inGreek andLatin, he tried to join School of Mining inLiège. By that timeMarcel Florkin became head of the Direction of Higher Education in Belgium's Ministry of Public Instruction, and under his administration passed the law that enabled war veterans to pursue higher education without diploma or other examinations. As an honour to his war service, he was given admission to theUniversity of Liège in 1922 to study medicine. He obtained his degree ofDoctor of Medicine in 1928.[4]
Claude received travel grants from Belgian government for his doctoral thesis on thetransplantation of mouse cancers into rats. With this he worked his postdoctoral research inBerlin during the winter of 1928–1929, first at the Institut für Krebsforschung, and then at theKaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology,Dahlem, in the laboratory of tissues culture of Prof. Albert Fischer. Back in Belgium he received fellowship in 1929 from theBelgian American Educational Foundation (Commission for Relief in Belgium, CRB) for research in theUnited States. He applied for the Rockefeller Institute (now theRockefeller University) in New York, USA.Simon Flexner, then Director, accepted his proposal to work on the isolation and identification of the Rous sarcoma virus. In September 1929 he joined the Rockefeller Institute.[4] In 1930, he discovered the process ofcell fractionation, which was groundbreaking in his time. The process consists of grinding up cells to break the membrane and release the cell's contents. He then filtered out the cell membranes and placed the remaining cell contents in acentrifuge to separate them according to mass. He divided thecentrifuged contents into fractions, each of a specific mass, and discovered that particular fractions were responsible for particular cell functions. In 1938 he identified and purified for the first time component of Rous sarcoma virus, the causal agent ofcarcinoma, as "ribose nucleoprotein" (eventually namedRNA). He was the first to useelectron microscope to studybiological cells. Earlier electron microscopes were used only in physical researches. His first electron microscopic study was on the structure of mitochondria in 1945.[5][6][7][8] He was givenAmerican citizenship in 1941.[2] He discovered that mitochondria are the "power houses" of all cells. He also discovered cytoplasmic granules full of RNA and named them "microsomes", which were later renamed ribosomes, the protein synthesizing machineries of cell. With his associate,Keith Porter, he found a "lace-work" structure that was eventually proven to be the major structural feature of the interior of alleukaryotic cells. This was the discovery of endoplasmic reticulum (a Latin for "fishnet").[3]
In 1949, he became Director of the Jules Bordet Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (Institut Jules Bordet) and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of theFree University of Brussels, where he was Emeritus in 1971.
In the mid sixties during an Electron Microscopy symposium in (Bratislava)-(Czechoslovakia) organized by the (UNESCO) at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, he meets young scientist Dr. Emil Mrena who was at that time head of the Electron Microscopy department. He invited him to come and work with him in Brussels, making it possible for Dr. Mrena's family to escape the communist regime. Their close collaboration gave fruition to 5 publications from 1969 to 1974.With the support of his colleague and friendChristian de Duve, he became in 1972 Professor at the University of Louvain (Université catholique de Louvain) and Director of the "Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire et Cancérologie" inLouvain-la-Neuve where he moved with Dr. Emil Mrena as sole collaborator. At the same time, he was appointed Professor at theRockefeller University, an institution with which he had remained connected, in different degrees, since 1929.[1]
He married Julia Gilder in 1935, with whom he had a daughter, Philippa. They were divorced while he was at Rockefeller. Philippa became aneuroscientist and marriedAntony Stretton.
Claude was known to be a bit of an eccentric and had close friendship with painters, includingDiego Rivera andPaul Delvaux, and musicians such asEdgard Varèse.
After his retirement in 1971 from theUniversité libre de Bruxelles and from the directorship of the Institut Jules Bordet, he continued his research at theUniversity of Louvain with his collaborator Dr. Emil Mrena, who ended up resigning in 1977 due to decreasing activity of the Laboratory, moving to other research works. It is said that he continued his research in seclusion until he died ofnatural causes, at his home in Brussels, on Sunday night on 22 May 1983, but he had stopped visiting his own laboratory in Louvain already in 1976 due to his weak health.[4]
