Professor Dr Harald Reuter (✝︎)

Harald Reuter’s international scientific career began with the discovery of a calcium-current in the heart. This current is essential for excitation-contraction coupling in this organ. He could show that adrenaline and other catecholamines increase this current, while so-called calcium antagonists inhibit it. Later on he and his co-workers characterized individual calcium-channels in the cell membrane by means of the patch-clamp method, and they elucidated functionally important molecular properties of the channels. He also discovered sodium/calcium exchange in the heart, a transport system that is mainly responsible for outward transport of calcium ions from myocardial cells. This early work was essential for a better understanding of cardiac function and pharmacological-therapeutic treatments. In later experiments with optical methods he studied, together with colleagues in Stanford, the cycling of neurotransmitter-containing vesicles in individual synapses of neurons. For 30 years he has been professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, University of Bern.