Dr. Paul Greengard was an American neuroscientist and received a Nobel Prize for his 15-year research of understanding how brain cells communicate provided new insights into neurological and psychological diseases. He used his entire prize money to create an academy in the memory of the mother he never knew.
He died on Saturday in Manhattan and he was 93. His death was confirmed by Rockefeller University, where he used to work since 1983.
Dr. Greengard earned the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Dr. Eric Kandel of the United States and Dr. Arvid Carlsson of Sweden for independent discoveries associated with how the brain cells pass along messages about movement, memory, and mental states.
Their groundbreaking discoveries provided new insights into neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and drug addiction.
Dr. Greengard described how brain cells react or respond to dopamine, a neurotransmitter (brain chemical). His research provided the explanation of many antipsychotic drugs, which regulate the strength of the brain chemical.
He showed that electrical stimulation and brain chemical signaling worked in tandem. He found that a group of chemicals called phosphates within brain cells triggers chemical changes, which amplify the dopamine signal. Eventually, this response makes it possible for brain cells to fire electrical signals. He called it signal transduction, which is now an important area of neurology.
Dr. Greengard was born on December 11, 1925, in Brooklyn. His mother, a homemaker, died giving birth to him. When he was 13, his Jewish father married an Episcopalian who raised Dr. Greengard and his two sisters according to the Christian tradition. He was not aware of his real mother until he was in college. He felt the loss of his mother deeply. He had no mementos of her, not even a photograph. After he received the Nobel Prize, he used his prize money to establish an academy called Pearl Meister Greengard Prize for women in biomedical research, in the memory of his mother.
