Claude, Albert, << klohd, ahl BEHR >> (1898-1983), a Belgian and American biologist, won the 1974 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for his pioneer work on the biology of living cells. He shared the prize with Christian de Duve of Belgium and George E. Palade, a Romanian-born American. See De Duve, Christian René ; Palade, George Emil . Between them, they laid the foundations of modern cell biology. Claude’s contribution was to use a centrifuge (a machine that rotates at high speed) to separate the constituents of a cell, and then to analyze the separated parts. This process is called differential centrifugation, and it is still an important technique in biological research.
Albert Claude discovered the role played in respiration by mitochondria (the parts of a cell that convert chemical energy into energy the cell can use). He also discovered the endoplasmic reticulum, an organelle within the cell where many of the cell’s proteins are made. In 1942, Claude used an electron microscope to examine the separated parts of the cell. This was the first time that such a microscope had been used for biological research. See Cell ; Electron microscope .
Claude was born in Longlier, Belgium, and graduated with an M.D. from the University of Liege, Belgium. He carried out his pioneering research at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York City, U.S.A., in the 1930’s and 1940’s. In 1941, he became a citizen of the United States and, in 1949, he assumed dual Belgian and American citizenship. Claude was given professorships both at the Rockefeller University and at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. From 1948 until 1971, he served as director of the Jules Bordet Institute in Belgium.
