Henry Hallett Dale
Encyclopedia
Sir Henry Hallett Dale, OM, GBE, PRS (9 June 1875 – 23 July 1968) was an English
pharmacologist and physiologist
. For his study of acetylcholine
as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses (neurotransmission
) he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
with Otto Loewi
.
, London
, to Charles James Dale, a pottery manufacturer from Staffordshire
, and his wife, Frances Anne Hallett, daughter of a furniture manufacturer. Henry was the third of seven children, one of whom (his younger brother, Benjamin Dale
) became an accomplished composer and warden of the Royal Academy of Music
. Henry was educated at the local Tollington Park College and then The Leys School
Cambridge (one of the school's houses is named after him) and in 1894 entered Trinity College
at Cambridge University
, working under the physiologist John Langley. For a few months in 1903 he also studied under Paul Ehrlich
in Frankfurt
, Germany. Also in 1903, Dale assisted Ernest Starling and William Bayliss
in the vivisection
of a dog which ultimately lead to the events of the Brown Dog affair
.
Dale received his M.D. from Cambridge in 1909. While working at the University College London
he met and became friends with Otto Loewi
. Dale became the Director of the Department of Biochemistry
and Pharmacology
at the National Institute for Medical Research
in London in 1914. He was knight
ed in 1932, receiving the Order of Merit in 1944 and the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
in 1948. Dale served as President of the Royal Society
from 1940 to 1945. He became a Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution
in 1942. During World War II
, he served on the Scientific Advisory Panel to the Cabinet.
In 1904, Dale had married his first cousin Ellen Harriet Hallett and had a son and two daughters.
, Loewi showed its importance in the nervous system
. The two men shared the 1936 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
During the 1940s Dale was embroiled in the scientific debate over the nature of signaling at the synapse
. Dale and others believed that signaling at the synapse was chemical, while John Carew Eccles
and others believed that the synapse was electrical. It was later found that most synaptic signalling is chemical, but there are some synapses that are electrical.
Dale also originated the scheme used to differentiate neuron
s according to what neurotransmitter they release. Thus, neurons releasing norepinephrine
(also known as noradrenaline) are called noradrenergic, neurons releasing GABA
are GABAergic, and so on. This scheme is related to Dale's principle
(sometimes erroneously referred to as Dale's Law). This principle states that each neuron releases only one type of neurotransmitter. Dale's principle has been shown to be false; since many neurons have been shown to release neuropeptides and amino acid
s in addition to classical neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine or biogenic amines (Bear, et al. 2001). This finding, that numerous neurotransmtters can be released by the same neuron, is referred to as the "coexistence principle." This phenomenon was most popularized by the Swedish neuroanatomist and neuropharmacologist Tomas Hökfelt
, who is considered to be the "Father of the Coexistence Principle."
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
pharmacologist and physiologist
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
. For his study of acetylcholine
Acetylcholine
The chemical compound acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter in both the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system in many organisms including humans...
as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses (neurotransmission
Neurotransmission
Neurotransmission , also called synaptic transmission, is the process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by a neuron , and bind to and activate the receptors of another neuron...
) he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
with Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi was a German born pharmacologist whose discovery of acetylcholine helped enhance medical therapy. The discovery earned for him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 which he shared with Sir Henry Dale, whom he met in 1902 when spending some months in Ernest Starling's...
.
Biography
Henry Hallett Dale was born in IslingtonIslington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, to Charles James Dale, a pottery manufacturer from Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, and his wife, Frances Anne Hallett, daughter of a furniture manufacturer. Henry was the third of seven children, one of whom (his younger brother, Benjamin Dale
Benjamin Dale
Benjamin James Dale was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works...
) became an accomplished composer and warden of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
. Henry was educated at the local Tollington Park College and then The Leys School
The Leys School
The Leys School is a co-educational Independent school, located in Cambridge, England, and is a day and boarding school for about 550 pupils aged between 11 and 18 years...
Cambridge (one of the school's houses is named after him) and in 1894 entered Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, working under the physiologist John Langley. For a few months in 1903 he also studied under Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich was a German scientist in the fields of hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy, and Nobel laureate. He is noted for curing syphilis and for his research in autoimmunity, calling it "horror autotoxicus"...
in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Germany. Also in 1903, Dale assisted Ernest Starling and William Bayliss
William Bayliss
Sir William Maddock Bayliss was an English physiologist.He was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and gained a B.Sc from London University. He graduated MA and DSc in physiology from Wadham College, Oxford....
in the vivisection
Vivisection
Vivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...
of a dog which ultimately lead to the events of the Brown Dog affair
Brown Dog affair
The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about vivisection that raged in Edwardian England from 1903 until 1910. It involved the infiltration of University of London medical lectures by Swedish women activists, pitched battles between medical students and the police, police protection for...
.
Dale received his M.D. from Cambridge in 1909. While working at the University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
he met and became friends with Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi was a German born pharmacologist whose discovery of acetylcholine helped enhance medical therapy. The discovery earned for him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 which he shared with Sir Henry Dale, whom he met in 1902 when spending some months in Ernest Starling's...
. Dale became the Director of the Department of Biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
and Pharmacology
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...
at the National Institute for Medical Research
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
in London in 1914. He was knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
ed in 1932, receiving the Order of Merit in 1944 and the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1948. Dale served as President of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
from 1940 to 1945. He became a Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...
in 1942. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he served on the Scientific Advisory Panel to the Cabinet.
In 1904, Dale had married his first cousin Ellen Harriet Hallett and had a son and two daughters.
Research
Although Dale and his colleagues first identified acetylcholine in 1914 as a possible neurotransmitterNeurotransmitter
Neurotransmitters are endogenous chemicals that transmit signals from a neuron to a target cell across a synapse. Neurotransmitters are packaged into synaptic vesicles clustered beneath the membrane on the presynaptic side of a synapse, and are released into the synaptic cleft, where they bind to...
, Loewi showed its importance in the nervous system
Nervous system
The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...
. The two men shared the 1936 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
During the 1940s Dale was embroiled in the scientific debate over the nature of signaling at the synapse
Synapse
In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell...
. Dale and others believed that signaling at the synapse was chemical, while John Carew Eccles
John Carew Eccles
John Carew Eccles, AC FRS FRACP FRSNZ FAAS was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloyd Hodgkin....
and others believed that the synapse was electrical. It was later found that most synaptic signalling is chemical, but there are some synapses that are electrical.
Dale also originated the scheme used to differentiate neuron
Neuron
A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
s according to what neurotransmitter they release. Thus, neurons releasing norepinephrine
Norepinephrine
Norepinephrine is the US name for noradrenaline , a catecholamine with multiple roles including as a hormone and a neurotransmitter...
(also known as noradrenaline) are called noradrenergic, neurons releasing GABA
Gabâ
Gabâ or gabaa, for the people in many parts of the Philippines), is the concept of a non-human and non-divine, imminent retribution. A sort of negative karma, it is generally seen as an evil effect on a person because of their wrongdoings or transgressions...
are GABAergic, and so on. This scheme is related to Dale's principle
Dale's principle
In neuroscience, Dale's Principle is a rule attributed to the English neuroscientist Henry Hallett Dale. The principle basically states that a neuron performs the same chemical action at all of its synaptic connections to other cells, regardless of the identity of the target cell...
(sometimes erroneously referred to as Dale's Law). This principle states that each neuron releases only one type of neurotransmitter. Dale's principle has been shown to be false; since many neurons have been shown to release neuropeptides and amino acid
Amino acid
Amino acids are molecules containing an amine group, a carboxylic acid group and a side-chain that varies between different amino acids. The key elements of an amino acid are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen...
s in addition to classical neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine or biogenic amines (Bear, et al. 2001). This finding, that numerous neurotransmtters can be released by the same neuron, is referred to as the "coexistence principle." This phenomenon was most popularized by the Swedish neuroanatomist and neuropharmacologist Tomas Hökfelt
Tomas Hökfelt
Tomas Hökfelt is a Swedish physician and former professor in histology at the Karolinska Institutet from 1979 until 2006, when he got his emeritate. He was linked to the Department of Neuroscience and is specialized in cell biology....
, who is considered to be the "Father of the Coexistence Principle."
External links
- Sir Henry Dale - Biography. Nobel Foundation.
- Sabbatini, R.M.E.: Neurons and synapses. The history of its discovery. IV. Chemical transmission. Brain & Mind, 2004.
- Fullerian Professorships