Memorial Service Set for Nobel Winner Rodbell

A memorial service for Nobel Laureate (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1994/index.html) Martin Rodbell will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 12, in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (http://www.niehs.nih.gov) Conference Center at 111 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park (http://www.rtp.org/) , N.C. Dr. Rodbell died Dec. 7 at the University of North Carolina Hospitals after an extended illness.

In 1970 Dr. Rodbell discovered that signal transmission, or transduction, which is the way the body's cells get their directions, requires a small intracellular molecule called GTP. His finding has had many implications for human diseases, from cancer to cholera, and their potential cures.

Dr. Rodbell started with NIH (http://www.nih.gov) in 1956 at the National Heart Institute. He moved to the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases where his Nobel Prize-winning research was done. He served as scientific director of NIEHS from 1985 to 1989, and then was named Scientist Emeritus of the institute, all the while continuing his work on signal transduction. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine [and Physiology] with Dr. Alfred G. Gilman (http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/professional/0,2356,12583,00.html) of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/) at Dallas in 1994.

Dr. Rodbell's wife, Barbara, of Chapel Hill, his daughter Suzanne Richardson of Cabin John, Md., and his sons Paul of Silver Spring, Md., Andrew of Bethesda, Md., and Philip of Ringham, Mass., plan to attend the service, along with many colleagues. All who knew Dr. Rodbell, as well as friends of the family, are welcome. There will be several scheduled eulogies, and then others who have a remembrance to share will be invited to speak.

There has been a memorial page established on the NIEHS website at http://www.niehs.nih.gov/external/mrmry.htm (URL no longer available) for people to leave messages in remembrance of Dr. Rodbell. A printed compilation of these thoughts will be presented to the Rodbell family at the service.

From Raleigh on I-40 take Exit 279A or from Durham take the Durham Expressway South, all the way to the end. Turn left at the stoplight and the South Campus is about a quarter mile on your left. Park in the main parking lot and come in through the main entrance.