Former UCSD professor and Nobel laureate George Palade died at his home on Oct. 7 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Professor emeritus of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine and founding dean for scientific affairs at the UCSD School of Medicine, Palade, 95, was considered the father of modern cell biology.

“We are saddened by the death of our respected colleague,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said. “Dr. Palade had a tremendous impact on the course of science, as well as a personal impact on countless colleagues and students who were inspired by his teaching and his example. His legacy will certainly live on in the work of so many brilliant scholars who benefited from Dr. Palade’s guidance and wisdom.”

Palade shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Albert Claude and Christian de Duve for discoveries in the understanding of cell structure and function.

He used the newly invented electron microscope to better study cells, which led to his discovery of the ribosome, and helped develop the technique of cell fractionation, which allows for the components of cells to be broken up and studied individually.