Writer: Jung Woo Kim
Editors: Sophie Doucett, Lorrine Sum
In neuroscience, there are numerous mathematical equations and models immortalising the names of neuroscientists who have revolutionised the field. As we celebrate UCL’s bicentenary, marking 200 years of being a vibrant hub for education and research, let’s take a look at one such name whose work on neurotransmission at UCL earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970: Sir Bernard Katz.
Bernard Katz, son of a Jewish fur trader, arrived on British soil penniless in February 1935, less than a year after completing his medicine degree in Leipzig, Germany. Fleeing Nazi persecution, he was accepted by Professor AV Hill of UCL to pursue PhD work in understanding the communication of neurones. After a stint in Sydney, in which he obtained British nationality and served in the Royal Australian Air Force, he returned to UCL in 1946 to set up the Department of Biophysics with AV Hill and to continue his work on neuronal communication.
The early 20th century was an exciting time for neuroscience research. It was marked by the discovery that, though neurones conduct electrical signals, they communicate with each other chemically by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters across the synapse, the gap between neurones. This raised the question: How? There were many possibilities, from emitting a fluctuating stream of neurotransmitters, to releasing them in an on-or-off way. To answer this question, Katz worked with the frog neuromuscular junction, a common animal model due to the large size of synapses between neurones and muscle cells. By inducing a tiny voltage on the neurones to induce spontaneous neurotransmitter release, he found a set of rules that governed the amount of chemicals released: the distribution of neurotransmitter release could only be explained if they were released in standardised packets, described as “quanta”, the same word used to describe the smallest discrete units of light called photons. Indeed, he found that these packets each have a probability of being released from a neurone, which increases as higher voltages are applied to the whole neurone. Thus, the rules of neuronal communication are governed by a probabilistic release of small packets of neurotransmitters.
This was a fundamental step forward for the study of neurophysiology. Katz’s discovery was corroborated with advanced imaging techniques, which found these packets of neurotransmitters in little spheres called synaptic vesicles within the cell. Additionally, further research uncovered more details about the mechanism behind neurotransmission, such as the finding that calcium was necessary for vesicle release. Katz collaborated with eminent neuroscientists of the time, such as Alan Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley and José del Castillo, and became head of the Biophysics Department following AV Hill’s retirement. Today, neuroscience students encounter his name frequently, through the Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz voltage equation for calculating neuronal voltage, as well as the del Castillo-Katz model of understanding the activation of cellular receptors. In UCL, he has also been commemorated by the eponymous Bernard Katz building of the Biochemical Engineering department. His lasting legacy is a testament to the influence of his findings, but more importantly, the love he felt for the collaborative effort that is scientific research.
Bernard Katz’s story is one of many researchers who have come to UCL’s doors in search of a better life, and have contributed to their respective fields by working in this institution. Katz himself was a refugee, escaping the eugenicist Nazi regime. However, looking at UCL’s past, present and future, there is much to reflect on regarding the role that UCL serves as a hub for research. Notably, UCL’s historic support for eugenics research in the early 20th century represents a particularly long-lived stain on its legacy; the Department of Eugenics was still operational while Katz was conducting his Nobel Prize-winning research in the 1950s. If the eugenicist sentiment had gripped British society the way it did in Germany, it would not have been a huge stretch of the imagination for UCL to have outright rejected researchers who were deemed “unfit for society”. What has gripped British society today, however, is rising anti-immigration stances in the government. If UCL aims to be a multicultural, international research and education institution, it is vital to lower barriers to entry for those arriving from beyond British shores, such as by providing scholarships or reducing international tuition fees. This way, UCL can continue its legacy of research excellence, as exemplified by Sir Bernard Katz.
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