David Domingo Sabatini, Argentine cytologist in United States (San Carlos de Bolívar, Buenos Aires Province 10 May 1931 –

Regarded as one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of protein sorting in cells and membrane biogenesis

Authored over 120 papers

First reported Golgi apparatus involvement in the formation of chromaffin granules and the exocytotic character of catecholamines release from medullary cells

Introduced glutaraldehyde as a new fixative for electron microscopy and cytochemical studies (1961)

Performed classical studies on protein synthesis

Discovered that the nascent polypeptide chain emerging from the large ribosomal subunit is responsible for the attachment of the ribosome to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane

First suggested the mechanism that effects the insertion of proteins into membranes during the course of their synthesis

Elucidated the cotranslational translocation of polypeptides in the endoplasmic reticulum

With George E. Palade discovered how the neurons communicate with each other  (1967)

Developed a method which used puromycin to dissociate ribosomes into functionally viable ribosomal subunits (1970s)

Discovered that a membrane-bound ribosome is held onto the membrane of endoplasmic reticulum

With Gert Kreibich identified ribophorins, the first membrane proteins shown to be specific of rough endoplasmic reticulum membranes

With G. Blobel formulated the signal hypothesis (1971). This research earned Blobel Medicine & Physiology Nobel Prize in 1999

With M. Cereijido introduced Madin-Darby canine kidney cell culture for the study of epithelial cell polarity (1970s)

First reported the polarity of viral budding by epithelial cells  

With E. Rodríguez Boulan. Asymmetric budding of viruses in epithelial monolayers: a model system for study of epithelial polarity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75:5071-5, 1978

Introduced many different methodologies to study translocation and the association of newly synthesized proteins within endoplasmic reticulum membranes (e.g. the use of protease as probes to demonstrate sequestration and of dilute detergents to extract the translocated chains found with the microsomal contents)

HONORS   

Samuel Roberts Noble Research Recognition Award (1980)

Grand Medaille d’Or, Academie Française des Sciences (2003)

LINKS

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/vjm36b00;jsessionid=F0D124B9E7F07A8FD2AC3C98AB97C038.tobacco03