Sir Bernard Katz, 92, a physician and physiologist who was a co-winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for his research in explaining the transmission of nerve impulses from the brain to muscles, died April 20.
The cause and location of his death were not reported.
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Sweden's Karolinska Institute awarded the 1970 Nobel to Sir Bernard and to the American Julius Axelrod and the Swede Ulf von Euler for their discoveries, which were made independently, concerning "the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanisms for their storage, release and inactivation."
In announcing the award, the institute went on to hail the scientists for answering "questions of fundamental importance for the understanding of the mechanism underlying the transmission between nerve cells."
The institute singled out Sir Bernard for his "discoveries concerning the mechanism for the release of the transmitter acetylcholine from the nerve terminals at the nerve-muscle junction," adding that this work was "of primary importance for our knowledge about the synaptic transmission between the nerve cells in the central nervous system."
Sir Bernard's biochemical research showed how acetylcholine was released by nerve endings in small packages he called "quanta" that contained only a few thousand molecules each. This research and his quanta theory led to better understanding of the workings of neurotransmitters.
His research, which helped lead to the birth of a new era of psychopharmacology, helped explain the workings of such poisons as nerve gas and the mechanism of drug addiction, led to advances in the medical treatment of some mental illnesses, and helped explain the workings of neurological disorders that lead to muscular paralysis.
He explained his belief in the central role of acetylcholine and his quantum neurotransmitter hypothesis in his 1966 book, "Nerve, Muscle and Synapse."
He discovered that even when a nerve is seemingly inactive, the acetylcholine cycle continues at a slow rate, ensuring that connections are maintained. He could induce something like paralysis in a muscle by simply blocking the cycle with a chemical substance.
After winning the Nobel, he did biochemical investigations of the pineal gland and its manufacture of melatonin.
Sir Bernard was born in Leipzig, Germany, to a Russian-Jewish family. He attended the University of Leipzig, where he won a prize for physiological research and received a medical doctorate.
He left Nazi Germany in 1935 to begin physiology research at the University of London, where he received a doctorate in 1938. After that, he went to Australia as a research fellow at Sydney Hospital.
After World War II service in the Southwest Pacific with the Australian air force, he returned to London, where he became a biophysics professor and biophysics department chairman at the University of London's University College. In 1978, he was named professor emeritus and honorary research fellow.
Sir Bernard, who had lived in London since World War II, was knighted in 1969, was the recipient of the Royal Society's Copely Medal and had served as the society's vice president and biological secretary.
In addition to his 1966 book, he was the author of "Electric Excitation of Nerve" (1939) and "The Release of Neural Transmitter Substances" (1969).
His hobbies included chess.
His wife, the former Marguerite Penly, whom he married in 1945, died in 1999.
Survivors include two sons.
