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4 unusual facts about Bernard Katz


Bernard Katz

Katz won the Nobel for his discovery with Paul Fatt that neurotransmitter release at synapses is "quantal"—that is, that at any particular synapse the amount of neurotransmitter released is never less than a certain amount, and if more is always an integral number times this amount.

Paul Fatt

With Bernard Katz, he developed the "quantal hypothesis" for neurotransmitters.

Squid giant synapse

The calcium hypothesis for synaptic transmission was directly demonstrated in this synapse by showing that at the equilibrium potential for calcium, no transmitter is released (Bernard Katz and R. Miledi 1967).

Wilfrid Rall

In 1954 he spent a sabbatical year at University College London in the Biophysics Department headed by Bernard Katz, and after a final year in Dunedin (where he was Acting Head of Department) he then moved to Bethesda, Maryland and the National Institutes of Health, where he remained until his retirement in 1994.



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