Paul Fatt

Paul Fatt (13 January 1924 – 28 September 2014) was a British neuroscientist, who was a professor at University College London. With Bernard Katz, he developed the "quantal hypothesis" for neurotransmitters.

Early life and education Paul Fatt was born in Chicago, IL, on 13 January 1924, in a Jewish-American family. His parents, Annie (née Arkin) and David were immigrants from eastern Slovakia (then Austro-Hungarian empire) and Lithuania (then Russian Empire), respectively. Paul had an elder brother Irving (1920–1996), a chemical engineer, and a younger brother Milton (1929–2011), a mathematician. Paul Fatt went to Grant’s Elementary School in Chicago. During those years, Paul spent his Saturdays exploring the Field Museum and other museums along the Lake Michigan waterfront. From those visits he acquired an interest in biology. To follow this interest, in 1952, Fatt moved to Australia to join the lab of John Eccles at the John Curtin School in Canberra. Working on cat motoneurons, inhibitory interneurons and sensory neurons, Fatt discovered that synaptic inhibition in mammals, as in crustaceans, relied on increased membrane conductance to chloride ions . He described in detail the electrophysiological properties of the two classes of muscle afferents (i.e., Ia fibers and Ib fibers), as well as their synaptic targets. Also, in Canberra, Fatt developed new experimental techniques: a double-barrel microelectrode, and an improved, more stable micromanipulator, which made those discoveries possible. The two discovered calcium-dependent action potentials in crayfish muscle cells. Subsequently, Fatt and Jacques Boistel confirmed that current was responsible for inhibition of the crayfish muscle cells. Then, they discovered that GABA was the neurotransmitter responsible for that inhibition. In another line of research, Fatt and Gertrude Falk, described the electrical properties of the muscle cells. With a hypothesis of a system of internal membranes that was continuous with the sarcolemma, they explained an apparent discrepancy between membrane impedance values, measured vs. estimated from the observed cell size. The measured impedance was several times higher than expected. These observations, along with electron microscopic images obtained by Hugh Huxley and Sally Page, led to the discovery of T-tubules.

From 1964 to 1985, Fatt and Falk studied signal transduction in vertebrate photoreceptors. Fatt attempted to explain the signal amplification mechanism by which a single photon absorbed by rhodopsin could elicit a measurable electrical response in a retinal bipolar cell. Although those studies generated important hypotheses about the mechanisms of phototransduction, which informed the work done by others and resulted in later discovery of the role of G proteins and cGMP, Fatt's experimental results in that period were not as groundbreaking as his earlier research. In 1985 Fatt stopped his research, and—four years later—retired from UCL.

Personal life While in Australia, Paul Fatt married Ione Copplestone (1926–2016). They had three children: Michael (b. 1954), Laura (b. 1955) and Harriet (b. 1957). The marriage did not last, however, and Fatt returned to England in 1956, while Ione stayed in Australia. Several years later, Paul married Gertrude Falk (1925–2008) whom he had met during a scientific conference in Seattle where they both presented their respective research results. Paul and Gertrude had daughter Ilsa (b. 1963) who later became a jewellery designer. In 1965, Fatt obtained British citizenship. Following his separation from Gertrude, Fatt married freelance translator (1934–2019) in 1985, and the couple remained together until his death. Paul died peacefully on 28 September 2014 at his home in Hampstead.

Awards and honours In 1969, Paul Fatt was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

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