Katz was born in 1911 in Leipzig, Germany, the son of a Russian fur trader. He did well in school — concentrating on Latin and Greek because, he said, "it gave him more time to play chess" — and went on to study medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1929. His interest in scientific investigation became apparent early, when he combined research with his preclinical studies. After graduating, he moved to England to escape anti-Semitism after Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. He joined A.V. Hill's laboratory at University College London (UCL) and earned his PhD.
After several years working in Australia with John Carew Eccles, another renowned physiologist, and later with the Royal Australian Air Force as a radar officer, Katz returned to UCL, becoming a member of the dynamic, post-war neurophysiology group working in the United Kingdom. He succeeded Hill as a professor of biophysics at UCL in 1952, presiding over a highly active department until he retired in 1978. His research work deciphered how nerve impulses are transmitted to muscle fibers to achieve muscle contraction. He established the quantal hypothesis of neuromuscular transmission in which quanta, or packets, of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine are released at the neuromuscular junction, with each quantum triggering a very brief signal in the target muscle fibre.
"BK — as he was known to scientific colleagues — was an icon of post-war biophysics," suggested David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at UCL. "His department became a mecca for postdoctoral students from all over the world. His influence on the training of a large number of the world's greatest scientists was huge."
The significance of Katz's work was recognized when he was named co-winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology, together with the US scientist Julius Axelrod and the Swede Ulf von Euler, for answering "questions of fundamental importance for the understanding of the mechanism underlying the transmission between nerve cells." The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, singled out Katz for his "discoveries concerning the mechanism for the release of the transmitter acetylcholine from the nerve terminals at the nerve-muscle junction."
In his Nobel lecture on December 12, 1970, Katz explained his surprise at finding the release of acetylcholine even in muscles apparently at rest: "Some 20 years ago, using the method of intracellular recording, Paul Fatt and I came across something quite unexpected. In the absence of any form of stimulation, the end-plate region of the muscle fibre is not completely at rest, but displays electric activity in the form of discrete, randomly recurring 'miniature' end-plate potentials." He continued, "Numerous experiments have shown that each miniature end-plate potential arises from the synchronous impact of a large multi-molecular quantum of acetylcholine spontaneously discharged by the adjacent nerve terminal."
In his later research career, Katz investigated the biochemistry of the pineal gland, in particular, its production of melatonin in response to light. After retiring as head of biophysics at UCL, he remained active in research administration, working with the research council of the Royal Society.
"He had an uncanny knack for picking the important part of a problem and leaving the rest of us dotting 'i's and crossing 't's," commented Colquhoun.
Katz's legacy will remain in his central contribution to understanding of the fundamental mechanism of neuromuscular transmission. "Every new entrant into the field should read his work from beginning to end," concluded Colquhoun.
Links for this article
University of Leipzig
University College London
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1970
Karolinska Institute
The Royal Society
The Scientist
30 April 2003
Original web page at The Scientist
