Re: Who discovered the endoplasmic reticulum?

Hi,

The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) was first described in 1945 by Keith R. Porter, Albert Claude, and Ernest F. Fullam in the following paper (although they refer to the ER as "the reticulum" or "the cytoplasmic reticulum" in this paper).

Porter KR, Claude A, Fullam EF. (1945) A Study of Tissue Culture Cells by Electron Microscopy: Methods and Preliminary Observations. J Exp Med 81:233-246. (PDF download)

For his discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell, Albert Claude received the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with Christian de Duve (discoverer of the lysozome and peroxisome) and George E. Palade.

Note that we have another answer in our archives that suggests that the ER was discovered by George Palade, Christian de Duve, and Philip Siekevitz. However, Palade's nobel lecutre and autobiography indicate that Siekevitz joined his research efforts in 1955, and that the ER was discovered by Porter, Claude, and Fullam.