The invention of electron microscopes allowed biologists to see the detail of the tiny structures inside cells. But it was clever experimentation by George Palade that revealed how those tiny structures help a cell survive .

HYPOTHESIS: Membranous Organelles Secrete Proteins

Six years after he graduated from medical school in Romania, George Palade began conducting research at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. He studied the network of membranous organelles in cells of the guinea pig pancreas. This network included the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER), the smooth ER, the Golgi apparatus, lysosomes, and secretory granules. Read the rest of this entry »