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Charles Darwin and son Francis publish the book "The Power of Movement in Plants"
Charles Darwin: Botanist
After years of experimentation on plant phototropisms, Charles and Francis Darwin conclude “These results seem to imply the presence of some matter in the upper part which is acted on by light, and which transmits its effects to the lower part.” -
Sydney Ringer shows calcium ions needed as a signal for heart contraction
Calcium signaling: A tale for all seasons
"An experiment performed in London nearly 120 years ago, which by today’s standards would be considered unacceptably sloppy, marked the beginning of the calcium (Ca2) signaling saga." -
George Redmayne Murray treats thyroid issues with injections of sheep thyroid extract
The History of Endocrinology: the fantastic world of hormones
"His product he called pink thyroid juice, and he injected it into a 46-year-old female patient. Within 3 months, there was a miraculous improvement in her appearance and her skin was less pale and her energy improved. He carried on with regular injections and this patient lived to the ripe old age of 74." -
Jokichi Takamine isolates adrenaline
The Discovery of Adrenaline
" He predicted that ‘the wonderful physiological action of the various glands may depend upon the effects of apparently simple chemical substances,’ thus stimulating the search for many other small tissue-specific compounds such as steroids and amines (and peptides) secreted for important physiological roles." -
Ernest Henry Starling coins the term hormone after isolating secrtin two years earlier
Ernest Starling and ‘Hormones’: an historical commentary
"Starling and his colleagues at UCL investigated (as best they could, for biochemistry was a very young subject) the nature of secretin. The working hypothesis was that the substance existed in the wall of the small intestine as a precursor (‘pro-secretin’) which released secretin under the influence of acid." -
Henry Dale identifies acetylcholine
Sir Henry Hallett Dale and the Acetylcholine Story
"Sir Henry Hallett Dale deserves the credit for establishing chemical transmission as the core of synaptic theory. Before his work the synapse was considered a region where electrical currents simply jumped from a nerve to an effector cell." -
Federick Banting publishes on the isolation of insulin
Frederick Grant Banting
"After a summer of many setbacks and failures, the team reported in the fall that they were keeping a severely diabetic dog alive with injections of an extract of duct-ligated pancreas. Amazingly, this extract dramatically lowered the blood sugar levels of of the diabetic dogs." -
Eiichi Kurosawa publishes on "toxin" stimulating growth in rice: Gibberellin
A Century of Gibberellin Research
"Gibberellin research has its origins in Japan in the 19th century, when a disease of rice was shown to be due to a fungal infection. The symptoms of the disease including overgrowth of the seedling and sterility were later shown to be due to secretions of the fungus Gibberella fujikuroi, from which the name gibberellin was derived for the active component." -
F.W. Went captures the first plant hormone: auxin
Went thesis 1927
"The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows. The continuing education of a physical-to-use growth-promoting substance (Auxin) in the outermost tip of an Avena Coleoptile is shown." -
Richard Gane provides conclusive evidence that plants biosynthesize ethylene
Ethylene
"Ethylene, unlike the rest of the plant hormone compounds is a gaseous hormone. It is produced in all higher plants and is usually associated with fruit ripening and the triple response." -
Vittorio Erspamer isolates and studies a smooth muscle contracting indole: serotonin
The Discovery of Serotonin and its Role in Neuroscience
"He deduced that the substance wasn't epinephrine and that on the basis of color tests, it was likely an indole. He named the substance enteramine and continued studies on smooth muscle for several more years." -
Choh Hao Li isolates growth hormone
ISOLATION AND PROPERTIES OF THE ANTERIOR HYPOPHYSEAL GROWTH HORMONE
"A method has been described for the isolation of a protein which caused the resumption of body growth and increase in the epiphyseal cartilage cells of the tibia in hypophysectomized rats. The protein is thus identified as the growth hormone." -
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet proposes the self non-self model of immunology
Immunological Recognition of Self
"To summarize this discussion of the basis of self recognition and tolerance, I have given reasons for believing that the only possible type of approach is by a "selective" theory of immunity which must be developed on a cellular and probably on a clonal basis." -
Rita Levi-Montalcini isolates nerve growth factor
The nerve growth factor: thirty-five years later.Rita Levi-Montalcini
"- - - the fact that this discovery, which grew out of a seemingly peripheral problem (peripheral inevery sense of the word), has blazed so many new trails is its greatest contributionin neuroembryology." -
Carlos Miller publishes on new plant hormone cytokinin
1955: Kinetin Arrives. The 50th Anniversary of a New Plant Hormone
"The luck of testing old bottles of DNA and yeast extract, and the blending of the particular talents, knowledge, and insights of the groups in the Biochemistry and Botany Departments, had led to the discovery of the first highly active member of the cytokinin class of plant hormones." -
Avrid Carlsson shows dopamine as a brain neurotransmitter
Avrid Carlsson and the story of dopamine
"Carlsson stated that the sensitivity to the aging process varies for different transmitters and brain regions and that the dopamine neurons were more age-sensitive than most other neurons investigated by him." -
Frederick T Addicott publishes on the discovery of abscisic acid
Abscisic Acid
"In 1963, abscisic acid was first identified and characterized by Frederick Addicott and his associates. They were studying compounds responsible for the abscission of fruits (cotton)." -
Earl W. Sutherland disccovers the role of cyclic AMP in cell communication
Earl W. Sutherland's Discovery of Cyclic Adenine Monophosphate and the Second Messenger System
"Sutherland's discovery and chemical characterization of the cAMP intermediate or “second messenger” was of crucial importance for understanding the mechanism of action of epinephrine and of many other hormones." -
Tony Hunter discovers tyrosine kinase receptors
Tony Hunter: Kinase king
"Before 1979, kinases were only thought to stick phosphates on two of the twenty amino acids: serine and threonine. But then Tony Hunter discovered that tyrosine could also be phosphorylated (1, 2), thereby uncovering an entirely new mechanism of protein regulation in cells." -
Robert Horvitz publishes on programmed cell death: apoptosis
Worms, Life and Death
"In particular,from the cell lineage we knew that specific cells with diverse developmentalorigins undergo programmed cell death at specific times during developmentand that programmed cell death is characterized by a series of specific
morphological changes. Thus, we could think of programmed cell death as acell fate, much like other cell fates." -
Alfred Gilman and Martin Rodbell discover G protein receptors
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1994
"The discoveries of the G-proteins by the Americans Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell have been of paramount importance in this context, and have opened up a new and rapidly expanding area of knowledge." -
Charles Janeway Jr proposes the pattern recognition theory of innate control of adaptive immunity
Toward a Modern Synthesis of Immunity: Charles A. Janeway Jr. and the Immunologist’s Dirty Little Secret
"Janeway proposed what was then an unorthodox belief that the immune system evolved not simply to discriminate self from non-self, but “noninfectious self from infectious non-self.” In other words, that the immune system evolved against, and thus for its induction depended on, the presence of microbes." -
Polly Matzinger proposes the danger model of immunology
The Danger Model: A renewed sense of self
"Where the Danger model parts company with the SNSD
models is that it does not assume that the discrimination
between self and nonself is the critical element in the decision to initiate an immune response." -
Dr. Keith Black identifies bradykinin to breach blood brain barrier
A Love Affair with the Brain
"Black had been fascinated by leukotrienes, naturally occurring compounds that enable swelling around traumatic injuries. Among other properties, leukotrienes cause the capillaries to leak. Black conjectured that similar substances, applied to the blood-brain barrier, could permit therapeutic chemicals to enter the brain." -
Karen Bennett lab publishes on regulation of granules in C. elegans
GLH-1, the C. elegans P granule protein, is controlled by the JNK KGB-1 and by the COP9 subunit CSN-5
" We propose the `good cop: bad cop' team of CSN-5 and KGB-1 imposes a balance on GLH-1 levels, resulting in germline homeostasis. In addition, both KGB-1 and CSN-5 bind Vasa, a Drosophila germ granule component; therefore, similar regulatory mechanisms might be conserved from worms to flies." -
Roeland Nusse shows stem cells use signal orietation to guide division
Stem cells use signal orientation to guide division, study shows
"Cells in the body need to be acutely aware of their surroundings. A signal from one direction may cause a cell to react in a very different way than if it had come from another direction." -
Dr Jonathan Göke studies molecular communication network in stem cells
Scientists discover molecular communication network in human stem cells
"This is an important study because it describes the cell's signaling networks and its integration into the general regulatory network. Understanding the biology of embryonic stem cells is a first step to understanding the capabilities and caveats of stem cells in future medical applications." -
Ashwath S. Kumar uses altered bacterial signals to treat pancreatic cancer
Bacterial Quorum Sensing Molecule N-3-Oxo-Dodecanoyl-L-Homoserine Lactone Causes Direct Cytotoxicity and Reduced Cell Motility in Human Pancreatic Carcinoma Cells
"We explored the possibility that human pancreatic tumor cells could respond to QS molecules of P. aeruginosa bacteria, anticipating that such signaling molecules could modulate the growth and migration characteristics as well as gene expression." -
Yukiko Yamashita discovers nanotube communication in stem cells
Discovery of nanotubes offers new clues about cell-to-cell communication
"When it comes to communicating with each other, some cells may be more "old school" than was previously thought.
Certain types of stem cells use microscopic, threadlike nanotubes to communicate with neighboring cells, like a landline phone connection, rather than sending a broadcast signal." -
Tamara Ouspenskaia idetifies cisnals that make early stem cells
Signals that make early stem cells identified
"While adult stem cells are increasingly well-characterized, we know little about their origins. Here, we show that in the skin, stem cell progenitors of the hair follicle are specified as soon as the cells within the single-layered embryonic epidermis begin to divide downward to form an embryonic hair bud."
