Günter Blobel, who received a 1993 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for landmark discoveries concerning the processes by which intercellular proteins are targeted across cell membranes, has passed away at 81.
Blobel’s research revealed how newly minted proteins are tagged in order to be properly trafficked out of the cell or to other cellular organelles, and solved a scientific conundrum: understanding how proteins get to the specific places needed in order to perform their biological function.
Blobel served on the Lasker Medical Research Awards Jury for 17 years, from 1996 through 2012.
See Günter Blobel discuss a marvel of biology that inspired his own research — how cells retain molecular signatures that reveal 4 billion years of evolutionary history.
