Sometimes scientists make discoveries not purposefully, but, you can say completely by accident. So, molecular biologist Christian Rene De Duve discovered the cell organelles of lysosomes only because that before that he left the cooked preparation for several days in fridge and forgot about it. For this “forgetfulness” the scientist received Nobel Prize. 
Photos from open sources Everyone knows that the Nobel Prize give for outstanding discoveries, but few people know what exactly they preceded. No doubt, sometimes they lead to the discovery purposeful and accurately calculated actions, but it also happens that the scientist discovers is not at all what he planned (and this It turns out to be much more valuable than the expected result). Or the discovery is the result of completely random actions. AND then it is logical that the Nobel Prize was awarded “for sloppiness, “” for reluctance to keep clean “(remember story with Alexander Fleming) or “for forgetfulness.” About the last case will be our story, especially since this story occurred during the christmas holidays. And her main character is a wonderful Belgian biologist Christian Rene De Duve. This outstanding scientist, who then worked in the laboratory at Catholic University School of Medicine at Louvain, actually originally engaged in completely different things that would hardly have led his great discovery – he studied the mechanism of action of the hormone insulin However, in this area the results of his work are now known. only to specialists. But now any schoolchild or student, keen on biology, knows that such important cellular organelles, like lysosomes and peroxisomes, were discovered precisely Christian De Duve. As a matter of fact, since that time, as a living cell was discovered, scientists could not understand one in general a simple enough thing: what is the mechanism of intracellular digestion? Observations showed that the cell is quite capable “swallow” large enough organic particles and digest them, however, no one knew how this happens. Of course, biologists guessed that inside it there are all the necessary enzymes, but where they are and how they work, not one could say researcher. In addition, there was another system problem nature – because if these enzymes break down organic substances, then they must be dangerous for the cell itself – it is consists of the same organic molecules. So, just like that in they cannot be in the cytoplasm – otherwise the latter will be fast digested by them. But where does the cell hide these dangerous substances? AND why they start to work only when next to them does food appear? There were no clear answers to these questions, although There were, of course, many assumptions. But back to De Duve – a scientist whose problem is not described above I was especially interested, at some point I realized that for study biochemical properties of cells, it is necessary to divide them into separate components by centrifugation. With fast enough rotation cell contents were divided into fractions in which cell components of different weights. Thus elemental a unit of all living things could be “disassembled into spare parts.” Keen on new method (which was developed by his friend and colleague Albert Claude), De Duve and his staff immediately began centrifuging the cells rat liver and soon received several different fractions. They were as follows: a nucleus containing chromosomes; mitochondria playing the role of “energy stations” of the cell, microsomes (later called ribosomes) and the supernatant – the liquid part of the cell. However, this separation is not particularly the researchers were happy, and they soon figured out how divide each fraction into subfractions. It gave biologists the opportunity to study almost the properties of each organelle in separately. So, almost immediately after the first successful experiments De Duve and colleagues found that enzyme activity acid phosphatase contained in the mitochondrial fraction, on the fifth day after fractionation was much higher than the first day. This was very interesting for researchers – it seemed similar something mysterious, because this enzyme was not active component of mitochondria. However, even then it was known that acidic phosphatase catalyzing the decomposition of organic molecules with by detaching their phosphate groups, is involved in cellular digestion. But what did she do in this fraction? And why her activity increased over time? Thinking about it Christian De Duve before Christmas in 1949 prepared several mitochondrial fractions and put them in freezer, hoping to study this issue after recreation. When he reappeared in the laboratory after the holidays, then I didn’t immediately remember the drugs, and they lay there a few more days. Finally, remembering the fractions and pulling them out of the refrigerator, the scientist saw that the preparations prepared by him suddenly for some reason … lysed (that is, they digested themselves). De duve carefully studied the fractions and realized that the following happened – frozen water formed crystals that damaged the mysterious containers where these same enzymes were stored. Now it was necessary find out what kind of storage they were. De Duve managed to split mitochondrial fraction in the subfraction, there he discovered strange vesicles surrounded by a membrane. Inside, sour phosphatase, and other digestive enzymes. So De Duve discovered one of the most important cellular organelles is lysosome, due to which is intracellular digestion. Later scientist and his colleagues found out why the enzymes contained in the lysosome are not damage the storage shell itself. It turns out they all work only in an acidic environment, but in a calm state inside the lysosome the environment is strictly neutral. When does this organelles with a food-carrying bubble then molecular “pump”, pumping ions into the resulting digestive vacuole hydrogen. The medium becomes acidic and the enzymes “turn on”. By the way it was this that served as an explanation for the fact that acidic activity phosphatase increased within five days after fractionation. The fact is that the “pump” often starts just after mechanical contact of the lysosome with any bubble. So thus, centrifugation simply “turned on” the enzymes. A little bit later, in the mid 50s of the last century, De Duve and his colleagues discovered another cellular organelle – peroxisome, which contained a large number of enzymes catalyzing redox reactions (it was so named because one of the functions of this organelle is the decomposition harmful to hydrogen peroxide cells). And for all this, in 1974, De Duvaux jointly with Albert Claude and George E. Palade was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Needless to say the presentation of this prestigious award was in this case completely rightly – indeed, the discoveries of the De Duve group allowed unravel the many secrets of cellular physiology. However should notice that the scientist needed to thank his forgetfulness, without which receiving a prize would be unlikely maybe … Anton Evseev
Time
