IN MEMORIAM: Sir Michael Berridge (1938-2020)#

Sir Michael Berridge, one of the giants in the fields of physiology and biochemistry, and one of the very early members of Academia Europaea (elected 1989), passed away on 13th February 2020.

Mike, as he was universally known, was born in what is now Zimbabwe and received his BSc from what was then called University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now University of Zimbabwe). He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Virginia and Case Western Reserve University in the US.

In 1983 he discovered one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in animal cells, namely the ubiquitous calcium releasing effect of the small water soluble molecule inositol trisphosphate (IP3). The IP3 – calcium releasing pathway is nowadays featured in all textbooks of physiology and biochemistry.

Although Mike was an accomplished and sophisticated experimentalist in his early years, his main interest – after his great discovery – became increasingly focussed on the ‘big picture’ of intracellular calcium signalling. He spent by far the major part of his working life in Cambridge where he was Head of Cell Signalling until his retirement in 2003.

His influence on all of us was profound and his help, advice and direct support will not be forgotten.

The full obituary by Prof. Ole Petersen CBE MAE FRS and Prof. Carl Petersen MAE can be found at http://aecardiffknowledgehub.wales/2020/02/17/in-memoriam-sir-michael-berridge-mae-frs-1938-2020.