Erwin Neher is a German cell physiologist. He was born in 1944 at Landsberg in Germany and trained originally as a physicist in Munich and at the University of Wisconsin. While working at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, he took a year-long sabbatical to work with the physiologist Sakmann at Yale University. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1991 with Bert Sakmann for his studies on ion channels and beta-endorphin. Neher and Sakmann developed the patch-clamp technique in 1976 to measure the electrical activity of very small portions of cell membranes. This technique revolutionized the study of ion channels.
To perform the technique a glasspipette with a tip diameter of about one micrometer is pressed against a cell and slight suction is then applied to seal the cellmembrane against the pipette. The technique allows the flow of ions through a single channel and transitions between different states of a channel to be monitored with a time resolution of microseconds. Using this method, Neher and Sakmann investigated the effect of beta-endorphin on the membrane of cells. Beta-endorphin is a neurohormone secreted by the pituitary gland and an opiate that has been found to play a clinical role in the perception of pain, behavioural patterns, obesity, diabetes, and psychiatric disorders. Neher and Sakmann demonstrated that beta-endorphin acts not only on nerves in the brain to regulate their secretion of neurotransmitters but also, via calcium channels, acts on the walls of arteries in the brain. Research Erwin Neher
Euripides was a Greek dramatist. He was born in 480 BC ior 485 BC at Phyla on the island of Salamis and died in 406 BC. He studied under Prodicus and Anaxagoras, and is said to have begun to write tragedies at the age of eighteen, although his first published play, the Peliades, appeared only in 455 BC. He was not successful in gaining the first prize until the year 441 BC, and he continued to exhibit until 408 BC, when he exhibited the Orestes. The violence of unscrupulous enemies, who accused him of impiety and unbelief in the gods, drove Euripides to take refuge at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, where he was held in the highest honour. According to a tradition he was killed by hounds in 406 BC.
Euripides is a master of tragic situations and pathos, and shows much knowledge of human nature and skill in grouping characters, but his works lack the artistic completeness and the sublime earnestness that characterize AEschylus and Sophocles. Euripides is said to have composed seventy-five, or according to another authority ninety-two tragedies. Of these eighteen (or nineteen, including the Ehesus) are extant: Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Hecuba, Heracleidse, Supplices, Ion, Hercules Eurens, Andromache, Troades, Electra, Helena, Iphigenia in Tauris, Orestes, Phcenissse, Bacchas, Iphigenia in Aulis, and Cyclops. Research Euripides
Marshal Ion Antonescu was a Romanian fascist dictator. he was born in 1886 and died in 1946. In September 1940 he was appointed Premier of Romania and pledged his support to Hitler and Mussolini. He supported the German invasion of Russia, and Romanian troops fought at Stalingrad. As the Axiscampaign in Russia faltered and became a retreat, Antonescu tried to pull out of the fascist alliance. In 1944 King Michael announced a coup in Romania and Antonescu was arrested. Research Ion Antonescu
In Greek mythology, Helice was the wife of Ion. The town of Helice in Achea on the gulf of Corinth was founded by Ion, who named it after her. Research Helice
In Greek mythology Ion was the son of Apollo and the Arthenian princessCreusa, whom Apollo raped on the Acropolis. Creusa abandoned Ion at birth, and Apollo took the child to Delphi, where he was brought up in ignorance of his true parentage. In the meantime, Creusa married King Xuthus. After several childless years, they went to Delphi to ask advice. Apollo told Xuthus that the first person he met on leaving the shrine would be his son - and that person was Ion. Furious that Xuthus was adopting someone she took to be a stranger, Creusa tried to kill Ion, but Apollo appeared and explained the situation. They all went back to Athens and in due course Ion sailed North and became the ancestor of the Ionian nation. Research Ion
Nitrogen mustard, in its pure form, occurs as a dark liquid with a faint fishy odour. It is fairly volatile and decomposes slowly on standing, forming the polymeric quaternary ammoniumsalt. It is very slightly soluble in water. Nitrogen mustard hydrochloride, which is the form produced commercially for sale, is composed of large white, hygroscopic crystals that are soluble in water and methanol. When heated to decomposition, nitrogen mustard emits very toxic fumes of hydrochloric acid and other chlorinated compounds as well as nitrogen oxides (NOx). As formulated for injection,
nitrogen mustard hydrochloride contains 100% +/- 10% active ingredient. Currently, the only known commercial use of nitrogen mustard is as a chemical intermediate in the production of its hydrochloride. Nitrogen mustard hydrochloride is used as an anti-neoplastic agent, either alone or in combination with other chemo-therapeutic agents, to treat neoplastic diseases, including Hodgkin' s disease, leukaemia, generalised lymphosarcoma, mycosis fungoides, and bronchogenic carcinoma. Also, it is used to control pleural, peritoneal, and pericardial effusions caused by metastatic tumours. Clinical investigations have been performed in the past to evaluate its usefulness in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and a variety of other non-malignant diseases. Research has also been conducted to investigate its use as a chemosterilant and as a cross-linking agent for the manufacture of ion-exchange fibres. Formerly, the pure form of nitrogen mustard was produced for use as a vesicant in chemical warfare. Research Nitrogen mustard
A chelate is an inorganic complex in which a ligand is coordinated to a metal ion at two or more points, so that there is a ring of atoms including the metal. The process is known as chelation. The bidentate ligand diaminoethane forms chelates with many ions. Research Chelate
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Abbreviations
Research Erwin Neher
