Скачать или смотреть Gerald Fischbach - Productive days at Harvard and Washington University (58/75)

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Gerald Fischbach (b. 1938) is an American neuroscientist and pioneering researcher. He pioneered the use of nerve cell cultures to study the electrophysiology, morphology and biochemistry of developing nerve-muscle and inter-neuronal synapses. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2023]

TRANSCRIPT: We did a number of other things in those years beyond the acetylcholine receptor. We worked on amino acid receptors on the neurons, the spinal cord, hippocampus. Larry Trussell, Tim Vartanian worked on glial cells, which is becoming a major issue. The oligodendrocytes, the same protein family seemed to regulate the survival of glia. Altogether, without going into all the details, we were very productive in these days at Harvard and Washington University.

When I came back to the NIH to be the director of the institute, I felt a little more withdrawn from the science. I had to rely more on the students, the fellows that kept doing beautiful work. Larry Trussell now is a full professor in Oregon. I think I went through this a while ago, I think I have the numbers right, of the 70-some-odd pre- and postdoctoral students. About 20 are either chairs of departments or heading a division of sorts at the NIH or elsewhere, including Ted Usdin, who I mentioned, is heading a division on molecular anatomy, and I'm very proud of them.

Al Sandrock I mention because he took a still different path, and maybe you've heard of Al. After doing his internship and residency, he went to Biogen and became one of the major figures in biotechnology. He was promoting proteins and antibodies that might slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. That also ended, sadly, in a way I don't understand, where Al either left or was asked to leave Biogen. I don't know the details and I haven't spoken to him about it recently. But he was very important in the early days of Alzheimer's therapy.