Neher, Erwin (1944-…), is a German research scientist who developed a new technique for studying the electrical activity of living cells. For this development, called the patch clamp, he and German physician Bert Sakmann shared the 1991 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Neher was born in Landsberg, Germany. He studied biophysics at the Technical Academy in Munich and at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, earning an M.S. degree from Wisconsin in 1967. He received a Ph.D. in biophysics from the Technical University in Munich in 1970.
Neher spent most of his career at the Max Planck Society. He worked as a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich from 1970 to 1972, meeting Sakmann there. The two scientists did most of their research together at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Gottingen, where Neher worked from 1972 to 1983. He left Gottingen only to spend a year at Yale University in 1975 and 1976. In 1983, he became research director of the institute in Gottingen.
Neher and Sakmann’s research increased understanding of how the positively and negatively charged atoms called ions flow in and out of cells. The two scientists discovered ion channels, individual protein molecules in cell membranes that serve as gateways for the flow of ions. When ions pass through these channels, they produce a tiny electric current. Neher and Sakmann developed the patch clamp to measure the current produced. The technique is so named because a recording electrode fastens to a microscopic patch of cell membrane. The patch clamp technique also enables scientists to measure how ion channels change shape while regulating the flow of ions in and out of the cell. The patch clamp quickly developed into one of the most widely used tools in cell biology. The Nobel committee said that it “revolutionized modern biology and facilitated research.”
