Geoffrey Burnstock (10 May 1929 – 2 June 2020) was a neurobiologist and President of the Autonomic Neuroscience Centre of the

UCL Medical School UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical educatio ...

. He is best known for coining the term

purinergic signalling Purinergic signalling (or signaling: see American and British English differences) is a form of extracellular signalling mediated by purine nucleotides and nucleosides such as adenosine and ATP. It involves the activation of purinergic recept ...

, which he discovered in the 1970s. He retired in October 2017 at the age of 88.

Life and career

Burnstock was educated at Greenford County School,

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

(BSc, 1953) and at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(PhD, 1957). He played a key role in the discovery of ATP as neurotransmitter. He was appointed to a Senior Lectureship in Melbourne University in 1959 and became Professor and Chairman of Zoology in 1964. In 1975, he became Head of Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at UCL and Convenor of the Center of Neuroscience. He has been Director of the Autonomic Neuroscience Institute at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine since 1997. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 1971, the Royal Society in 1986, the International Academy of Science, Munich, the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998 and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians in 1999 and 2000. He was awarded the Royal Society Gold Medal in 2000. Within his research field, he has been recognised through appointments as the first president of the

International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience The International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience is a scientific society of researchers studying the autonomic nervous system. The society organizes scientific meetings, publishes a scientific journal, and supports students through awards and ...

and his role as editor in chief of the scientific journal Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical. He supervised over 100 PhD and MD students and published over 1400 original papers, reviews and books. He was first in the Institute of Scientific Information list of most cited scientists in Pharmacology and Toxicology from 1994–2004. Burnstock was editor-in-chief of the ''

Purinergic Signalling Purinergic signalling (or signaling: see American and British English differences) is a form of extracellular signalling mediated by purine nucleotides and nucleosides such as adenosine and ATP. It involves the activation of purinergic recept ...

'' journal. He was an atheist. Burnstock was awarded the 2017 Australian Academy of Science's

Macfarlane Burnet Medal The Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture is a biennial award given by the Australian Academy of Science to recognise outstanding scientific research in the biological sciences. It was established in 1971 and honours the memory of the Nobel laureat ...

in recognition of his outstanding scientific research in the biological science. He died on 2 June 2020 at the age of 91.

Legacy

His lasting work with ATP-related signalling was first published in the 1970s, which led to a rapid surge in interest in the field and subsequently made him the most cited scientist in pharmacology and toxicology for several years during the 2000s. Much of our understanding of

and the current classification of

purinergic receptor Purinergic receptors, also known as purinoceptors, are a family of plasma membrane molecules that are found in almost all mammalian tissues. Within the field of purinergic signalling, these receptors have been implicated in learning and memory, lo ...

s is attributed to the work of Burnstock. He was the founding president of the

. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Burnstock is recognised as "''the scientist who brought ATP into the realm of brain research.''"

References

External links

UCL siteThe Last Word (BBC Radio 4)
obituary {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnstock, Geoffrey 1929 births 2020 deaths Alumni of King's College London Alumni of University College London Academics of University College London Companions of the Order of Australia Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Royal Medal winners Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Australian atheists Australian neuroscientists

Life and career

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading

External links