Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Evert Gorter: (1925)
During his entire and long scientific career (born in 1881, he worked until he died in 1954),
Evert Gorter (
Figure 2.11
) was a highly respected Dutch pediatrician
[15]
. Gorter must have
been a very busy man as he balanced two jobs, a paying one (pediatrician) and a non-paying
one (scientist). In addition, he suffered from arthritis and was wheelchair-bound. In a 1925
paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Gorter and his research assistant F. Grendel pub-
lished a very short report consisting of only 5 pages with no figures and one brief data table
(shown in
Figure 2.12
). This paper
[4]
, is now considered to be the most significant work ever
done on membranes. However, as is often the case, this monumental insight was unappreci-
ated when it was published and was only rediscovered many years later. Gorter and Grendel
were the first to offer experimental proof that membranes are 'lipid bilayers'. They extracted
erythrocyte membrane lipids with benzene and floated them on a Langmuir Trough. Upon
rapid evaporation of the benzene, a lipid monolayer was formed. They then used the earlier
1917 paper by Langmuir
[9]
as a guide to compress the membrane lipid monolayer until it
resembled a normal compressed lipid monolayer. Unfortunately this was a guess. They
knew how many extracted erythrocytes produced a measured monolayer area and they
calculated the surface area of a typical bi-concave-shaped erythrocyte. Knowing each of these
parameters, they discovered the area of a monolayer from extracted erythrocyte lipids was
twice the surface area of the erythrocytes, hence the membrane was a lipid bilayer. To prove
FIGURE 2.11
Evert Gorter (1881
e
1954). Courtesy of Digitaal Wetenschapshistorisch Centrum (DWC).
