Nobel Laureate Alfred Gilman,
Defender of Good Science, Dies at 74Alfred G. Gilman, a Nobel laureate who concluded his academic career in the role of chief scientific officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, died Dec. 23, 2015. Gilman, 74, had pancreatic cancer. Gilman shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Martin Rodbell of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for their discovery of G proteins—guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory proteins. G proteins are central to signaling transduction, the process of receiving signals from outside the cell and activating a range of cellular responses. G proteins are found in nearly all cells, and are central to body processes that include vision, smell, hormone secretion, and thinking in humans. Problems in G-protein signaling contribute to a range of diseases, including cholera, whooping cough, and cancer. |