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Alberto Monroy was a scientist
of world-wide renown. He worked as a professor at the Marine Biological
Laboratory of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he had been teaching
for 30 years in the Summer courses in Fertilization and Gamete
Physiology. He was the only foreigner to be elected emeritus by
this Institution.
In 1965, he wrote a book on Chemistry and Physiology of Fertilization,
edited by Holt Rinehard and Winston, which represented a milestone in
the subject and was translated into several languages, among which
Russian and Japanese. Among his several publications we must recall the
series "Current Topics in Developmental Biology", edited by Academic
Press, which he started together with Aaron Moscona and continued till
his death. He was also chief managing editor of Cell Differentiation.
Monroy's interest was mainly focused on the cellular and developmental
biology of the sea urchin. He started studying fertilization and
continued with a more modern molecular biological approach, which he
pioneered starting in the 1950s, when he demonstrated, in collaboration
with Eizo Nakano, that in sea urchins the protein synthesis rate
increases immediately after fertilization. He also provided the first
explanation of this phenomenon, showing in 1962, in collaboration with
Albert Tyler, that such increase was due to a parallel increase in the
number of polysomes. He demonstrated as well that the lack of polysomes
before fertilization was due to a proteic inhibitor "masking" the
ribosomes, which could be experimentally removed with a mild trypsin
treatment, thus activating protein synthesis.
He was full professor and Director of the Institute of Comparative
Anatomy at the University of Palermo for 17 years, and then President
of the Stazione Zoologica of Naples till his death.
In 1967 he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Chicago
and in 1969 he was elected President of the International Society of
Developmental Biologists.
Alberto Monroy died in 1986 while he was still working at Woods Hole at
the age of 73.
After 20 years from his death we still like to remember him for the
genuine interest with which he was able to listen to the scientific
works of other scholars. This, together with his tireless international
mobility, made him one of the better informed scientists of his time.
Finally it is a pleasure to recall his sincere and spontaneous laughter
that was able to impress joy and humour to the conversation and
interrupt any tension. |
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