John Graham Nicholls

John Graham Nicholls FRS (19 December 1929 – 13 July 2023) was a British, American and Swiss physiologist and neuroscientist.

John Graham Nicholls
Nicholls in 2007
Born	(1929-12-19)19 December 1929 London, England
Died	13 July 2023(2023-07-13) (aged 93) Trieste, Italy
Nationality	British, American, Swiss
Alma mater	King's College London Charing Cross Hospital University College London
Scientific career
Fields	Physiology, Neuroscience
Institutions	University College London, Charing Cross Hospital, University of Oxford, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Biozentrum University of Basel, International School for Advanced Studies

Life

Nicholls was a professor emeritus of physiology. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and King's College London.^[1] He received his MD from Charing Cross Hospital and a PhD from the Department of Biophysics at University College London in 1955. He worked at University College London, and the universities of Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. In 1983 he became professor of pharmacology at the Biozentrum University of Basel. After reaching emeritus status in 1998, he was professor of neurobiology at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, where he lived until his death. The International Brain Research Organization named a fellowship in his honor and he was a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Nicholls died on 13 July 2023, at the age of 93.^[2][3][4][5] Some of the many students and postdoctoral fellows he trained are listed on his Neurotree page.^[6]

Work

Nicholls was best known for his research in the field of neurobiology. In invertebrate and mammalian nervous systems he studied synaptic transmission^[7] as well as the problem of why neurons in the mammalian brain and spinal cord fail to regenerate after injury, in contrast to the precise regeneration of synaptic connections that he was the first to demonstrate using the leech.^[8][9] For his studies he developed a new type of mammalian central nervous system (CNS) preparation that allowed the investigation of mechanisms involved in neurite outgrowth and CNS regeneration.^[10][11] In later years he started to study how the rhythm of respiration is generated by the nervous system.^[12] Additionally, he authored the book From Neuron to Brain,^[13] through its fifth edition and wrote an introduction for the sixth.

Awards & honors

• 1988 Fellow of the Royal Society^[14]
• 2003 John Nicholls Fellowship^[15]
• 2007 D.Sc. Honoris Causa, University of Trieste^[16]
• 2010 Society for Neuroscience Award for Education in Neuroscience^[17]
• 2011 Endowed John G. Nicholls Lecture^[18]

Books

• Kuffler S., Nicholls JG. From neuron to brain. Sinauer Associates Inc.,U.S.; 1st edition (12 August 1976)
• Kuffler S., Nicholls JG. From neuron to brain. Sinauer Associates Inc.,U.S.; 2nd edition (1 May 1984)
• Nicholls JG., Martin R. From neuron to brain. Sinauer Associates Inc; 3rd edition (September 1992)
• Nicholls JG., Martin R. From neuron to brain. Sinauer Associates; 4th edition (15 January 2001)
• Nicholls JG., Martin R. From neuron to brain. Sinauer Associates is an imprint of Oxford University Press; 5 edition (7 November 2011)

References

1. ‘NICHOLLS, Prof. John Graham’, Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
2. "Obituary for Prof. John G. Nicholls". Biozentrum.unibas.ch. 20 July 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
3. "Dr. John Graham Nicholls, FRS". SfN.org. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
4. "Obituary for Professor John G Nicholls". IBRO.org. 17 August 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
5. Ashmore, Jonathan; Gibb, Alasdair (December 2023). "Obituary: John Nicholls (1929-2023)". Physiology News. The Physiological Society: 46–47. doi:10.36866/pn.132.46. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
6. "John G Nicholls". Neurotree.org. 23 January 2024. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
7. Nicholls, John G.; Purves, D. (1 September 1972). "A comparison of chemical and electrical synaptic transmission between single sensory cells and a motoneurone in the central nervous system of the leech". J Physiol. 225 (3): 637–56. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1972.sp009961. PMC 1331135. PMID 4342522. S2CID 32192574.
8. Jansen, J. K. S.; Nicholls, J. G. (March 1972). "Regeneration and changes in synaptic connections between individual nerve cells in the central nervous system of the leech". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 69 (3): 636–639. Bibcode:1972PNAS...69..636J. doi:10.1073/pnas.69.3.636. PMC 426524. PMID 4501577.
9. Fuchs, P. A.; Henderson, L. P.; Nicholls, John G. (1 February 1982). "Chemical transmission between individual retzius and sensory neurons of the leech in culture". J Physiol. 323: 195–210. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1982.sp014068. PMC 1250352. PMID 6124633. S2CID 44874264.
10. Varga, Z.M.; Fernandez, J.; Blackshaw, S.; Martin, A. R.; Muller, K. J.; Adams, W. B.; Nicholls, J. G. (1 March 1996). "Neurite outgrowth through lesions of neonatal opossum spinal cord in culture". J Comp Neurol. 366 (4): 600–12. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(19960318)366:4<600::AID-CNE4>3.0.CO;2-8. PMID 8833112. S2CID 22919657.
11. De-Miguel, Francisco F.; Muller, Kenneth J.; Adams, William B.; Nicholls, John G. (30 May 2002). "Axotomy of single fluorescent nerve fibers in developing mammalian spinal cord by photoconversion of diaminobenzidine". J Neurosci Methods. 117 (1): 73–9. doi:10.1016/s0165-0270(02)00078-x. PMID 12084566. S2CID 34628467.
12. Muller, Kenneth J; Tsechpenakis, Gavriil; Homma, Ryota; Nicholls, John G; Cohen, Lawrence B; Eugenin, Jaime (12 September 2009). "Optical analysis of circuitry for respiratory rhythm in isolated brainstem of foetal mice". Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 364 (1529): 2485–91. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0070. PMC 2865113. PMID 19651650.
13. Nicholls, John G. (29 February 2012). From Neuron to Brain. Sinauer Associates, Inc. p. 621. ISBN 978-0878936090. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014.
14. Royal Society Retrieved 16 June 2014.
15. "NEW! THE JOHN G. NICHOLLS IBRO FELLOWSHIP". International Brain Research Organization. 29 September 2003. Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
16. University of Trieste Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 June 2014.
17. "Award for Education in Neuroscience Presented to John Nicholls". Society for Neuroscience. 14 November 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
18. "The John G. Nicholls Endowed Lectureship in Neural Systems and Behavior: "Growth Factors and Memory Formation"". Marine Biological Laboratory. 18 July 2012. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2014.

External links

• Prof. Dr. John Nicholls, Emeritus, Biozentrum University of Basel