11 Facts About Martin Rodbell

Martin Rodbell was an American biochemist and molecular endocrinologist who is best known for his discovery of G-proteins.

Martin Rodbell did post-doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1954 to 1956.

In 1956, Martin Rodbell accepted a position as a research biochemist at the National Heart Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland.

In 1985, Martin Rodbell became Scientific Director of the NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina where he worked until his retirement in 1994.

Martin Rodbell was adjunct professor of Cell Biology at Duke University and adjunct professor of pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Martin Rodbell died in Chapel Hill of multiple organ failure after an extended illness.

Martin Rodbell asserted that individual cells were analogous to cybernetic systems made up of three distinct molecular components: discriminators, transducers, and amplifiers.

Martin Rodbell discovered that ATP could reverse the binding action of glucagon to the cell receptor and thus dissociate the glucagon from the cell altogether.

Martin Rodbell then noted that traces of GTP could reverse the binding process almost one thousand times faster than ATP.

Martin Rodbell deduced that GTP was probably the active biological factor in dissociating glucagon from the cell's receptor, and that GTP had been present as an impurity in his earlier experiments with ATP.

Later, Martin Rodbell postulated, and then provided evidence for, additional G-proteins at the cell receptor that could inhibit and activate transduction, often at the same time.