Dr. Martin Rodbell

1994 Nobel Laureate

Dr. Martin Rodbell, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr. G. Alfred Gilman of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Rodbell dis- covered in 1970 that signal transmission requires a cellular molecule called GTP. In 1977 Dr. Gillman identified the proteins to which GTP binds and named them "G proteins." They are a family of proteins bound to the cell surface membranes that serve as intermediaries between incoming signals and cellular proteins that respond to these signals. Dr. Rodbell conducted this research while an intramural scientist with the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases (now NIDDK).

This page last reviewed on August 7, 2015