Keith R. Porter was a true pioneer in the field of cell biology. During his five decades as a research professor at some of the leading academic institutions in the United States, Porter played a seminal role as the discipline came into existence and reached maturity. Many of the most important discoveries in this new and dynamic area of study were made by Porter himself or by students, colleagues, and collaborators working in his laboratories. A native of Nova Scotia, Porter graduated in 1934 from Acadia University in Halifax. In 1938, he received a Ph.D. from Harvard University and then moved to the Rockefeller Institute in New York City to begin his work on cells in tissue culture. By the early 1940s, the Rockefeller Institute had become the crucible of the new fields of cell fractionation and fine structure. Porter, as head of the laboratory of cytology was at the epicenter of this explosion of information and discovery. Together with colleagues such as George Palade, Albert Claude, Christian de Duve, G. C. Hogeboom, W. C. Schneider, and Philip Siekevitz, Porter nurtured the discipline and trained many of the students who became its leaders. One of Porter's first scientific inventions was the roller flask for culturing mammalian cells. Perhaps more important was that he discovered how to spread cultured cells thinly enough to be observed with a transmission electron microscope, a then-revolutionary instrument that uses high energy electrons rather than light for image formation. His photograph of a the interior structure of an intact cell became one of the most famous images in cell biology and triggered a scientific revolution in our understanding of cellular ultrastructure. To study solid tissues in the electron microscope, Porter and his assistant Joe Blum invented the first reliable microtome capable of cutting ultra-thin sections.
In the 1950s, Porter proposed a new journal for the rapidly expanding field of cell structure and function. Originally called the Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology, the publication later was renamed the Journal of Cell Biology. Porter served as its first editor and set the tone for what became the preeminent publication in the field. In 1961, Porter chaired the founding committee for the American Society for Cell Biology and became the organization's first president. At about the same time, he left Rockefeller to become chair of the Biology Department at Harvard where he continued his leadership in the growing field of cell studies. Among some of the most important discoveries made by Porter and his colleagues include the first ultrastructural description of a virus particle, the structure and function of rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, microtubules and microfilaments of the cell cytoskeleton, mechanisms of synthesis and assembly of collagen, the role of clathrin-coated vesicles in endocytosis, the nine plus two structure of ciliary axonemes, and the concept of compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells by internal membranes.
In 1968, Porter accepted the challenge of setting up a new department of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. A highlight of this new position was a novel research tool, an enormous, million-volt transmission electron microscope that provided stunning images of whole cells and thick sections of tissues. His insights into the complex structure of the cell interior led him to propose a superorganization of the cytoskeleton and cytoplasmic membranes into what he called the "microtrabecular lattice," an all-pervasive and all-controlling system that controls most cellular activities. During his years at Colorado, Porter also pioneered the use of the scanning electron microscope for the study of cell surfaces and tissue organization. He was fascinated with the elaborate ruffles, blebs, and "bulbous excrescences" visible on cell surfaces, and he speculated that they might tell us much about what is going on inside the cell.
An outstanding teacher and research mentor, Porter was renown for his dry wit and his penchant for skewering pomposity and pretension. He loved working with students. Porter retired from the University of Colorado in 1983, but his research career was not yet over. He spent four years as Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, and in 1987, at age 75, Porter moved once again to become the Distinguished Research Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. His indefatigable energy and curiosity inspired several generations of students and shaped the entire field of cell biology. During his 50-year career, Porter received numerous awards and prizes. Sadly, he did not share the Nobel prize awarded in 1974 to George Palade, Albert Claude, and Christian de Duve, an oversight that many of Porter's contemporaries felt was highly unjust since he worked closely with all three. Porter's legacy lives on, however, in his many important discoveries and in the numerous students whom he trained and inspired during his long career.
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