Two of area’s top researchers die

George E. Palade, 95

Dr. George Palade, the UC San Diego Nobel laureate whose work isolating, imaging and identifying the function of minute organelles within cells prompted the Nobel committee to label him and his co-winners the fathers of cell biology, has died. He was 95.

Palade died Tuesday at his home in Del Mar after a long illness.

Palade shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two other scientists for a whole series of experiments.

Palade was recruited to UC San Diego from Yale University in 1990 to serve as UCSD School of Medicine’s first Dean for Scientific Affairs. He created the department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, which has risen to become one of the preeminent cell biology programs in the nation.

Palade was born on Nov. 19, 1912. His is survived by a wife, four children and two grandchildren. Memorial services are pending.

Ernest Beutler, 80

Dr. Ernest Beutler, a Scripps Research Institute physician and researcher who was one of the country’s leading experts on diseases of the blood and iron metabolism, has died of lymphoma. He was 80.

Beutler, a La Jolla resident, died Sunday at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla.

Beutler was a pioneer in bone marrow transplantation for fighting cancer; made key discoveries about the role of the X-chromosome in women; helped discover the most common clinically significant enzyme deficiency of humans; improved the diagnosis and treatment of Gaucher disease; and developed cladribine, a treatment for both leukemia and multiple sclerosis.

Beutler was born in Berlin. He came to San Diego in 1979 to become chairman of what was then the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, four children and eight grandchildren.