In Memoriam: Hans W. Sollinger, Guillermo de Venecia, Merle A. Evenson
Goodbye dear friends: Hans W. Sollinger, Guillermo de Venecia, Merle A. Evenson
Chapman concentrates on research questions that are big, bad, and basic. Many of them concern the release of neurotransmitters at the synapse — the tiny gap between two neurons.
Working mainly at the level of molecules, cells, and artificial models of cellular structures, Ed Chapman, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, developed a unique approach to unraveling the ground-level secrets of the nervous system. Thirty years ago, he began to work out how a specific protein, in the presence of calcium ions, releases a neurotransmitter into the synapse by triggering the opening of a structure called the fusion pore. What he discovered is that the number of proteins in a fusion pore governs how it opens. The result was characteristic of Chapman’s approach. It focused on the speed of a process. And it was basement-level basic: neurotransmitter releases occur countless times a minute in a person, and they are critical to kicking a football, typing a word, remembering your aunt’s name and smelling the roses.