About us
Director 1979 - 1995
Academic Degree: Doctor in Medical Sciences
Major position and appointments
Vice-President of the Romanian Academy President, Romanian Science Foundation President, National Committee for Molecular Biotechnology President, Romanian Society for Cell Biology Visiting Professor, Yale University, New Haven, USA Ludwig Schaffer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Columbia University, N.Y. USA Borun Visiting Professor of Cardiology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA Visiting Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Canada NATO Science Committee, Romanian Representative Brussels
Significant new concepts and findings internationally recognized (in collaboration)
The concept and the term Transcytosis and Receptor Mediated Transcytosis In 1979, N. Simionescu published a paper in which his new and inspired term “transcytosis” was for the first time introduced in the scientific literature (Simionescu N, Advances in inflammation research, Weisman G. et al, eds. Raven Press, New York, 1979).
His concept on transcytosis implied that in endothelial cells, efficient and rapid transport of macromolecules from the plasma to the interstitial fluid is accomplished via vesicles, channels and fenestrae, which carries solutes throught the endothelium by a shortcut between endocytosis and exocytosis, namely by transcytosis (adsorbtive, receptor mediated transcytosis). The concept was based on work carried out with Maya Simionescu and George E. Palade. The new term and concept was extended to all epithelial cells and rapidly adopted by the international scientific community; it become so widely used, that today very few people quote or know its original author, a common fact for classic concepts (i.e. endocytosis, exocytosis).
First identification and biochemical characterization of “Extracellular Liposomes” then termed “Modified and Reassembled Lipoproteins” as the earliest event in atherogenesis.
Identification and characterization of “Albumin Binding Proteins” on endothelial cell membrane as well as in other cell types.
Discovery of “transendothelial channels”.
Discovery of “biochemically differentiated microdomains of the endothelial cell surface”.
New methods in Cell Biology: galloylglucoses as mordants in electron microscopy (1976), isolation of endothelial cells from the heart microvasculature (1978), new ultrastructural permeability tracers etc.
A scientific side project: co-founder together with Maya Simionescu of the Institute of Cellular Biology and Pathology
Founder of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology (1982)
Publications: over 600 papers in peer review jornals, chapters in national and international monographs and books.
Member of Scientific Societies
American Society for Cell Biology; American Thyroid Association; American Association for Advancement of Science; International Society for Biological Rhythms; International Society for Stereology; International Society for Endocrinology; European Society for Experimental Surgery; European Society for Comparative Endocrinology; Italian Anatomical Society; International Committee on Laboratory Animals (Governing Board); European Artery Club (Governing Board); European Vascular Biology Association
Teaching activities
Anatomy Department, Faculty of Medicine, Bucharest (20 years)
Visiting Professor, Cell Biology Course, Medical School, Yale University (20 years)
Advisor Ph.D and MD programs, Yale University and ICBP
Nominated in 1978 by the Ist medical students for the Bohum Prize honouring the best professor of Yale University School of Medicine.
Lectures on Cell Biology by invitation to: Columbia University, New York; Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York; SUNY Downstate Medical School, Brooklyn; NYU Medical School, New York; Massachusetts University, Worcester; Harvard University, School of Medicine, Boston; University of California, Medical School, Los Angeles; McGill University, Montreal; University of Tokyo School of Medicine, Tokyo; Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto; Faculté Xavier Bichat, Paris; Faculty of Medicine, Lisabona.
Awards and honors
Gheorghe Marinescu Award of the Romanian Academy for Medical Sciences, 1967
Medal of Faculty of Medicine of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1975
Medal of Tokyo Society of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo University, Japan, 1975
Pfizer Fellow of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Canada, 1978
Louis and Arthur Lucian International Award for Circulatory Diseases Research, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (shared with Maya Simionescu), 1978
Rokitansky Medal of the International Academy of Pathology, Vienna, Austria, 1986
Medal of the 900th Anniversary of the University of Bologna, Italy, 1987
Invited speaker, chairman and organizer of over 50 International Congresses (USA, Europe, Mexico, Japan, Canada)
Member in editorial boards
Thrombosis Research; Journal of Submicroscopic Cytology and Pathology; Science et Techniques de l’Animal de Laboratoire; Cell Differentiation; Endothelium.
Consultant to international scientific institutions
WHO expert on experimental endocrinology
Expert, Thyroid Cancer Group of the International Union Against Cancer
National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA
National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, USA
Experimental Medicine Dept., Pharmacia Biotechnology, Uppsala, Sweden
Cardiology Institute of Texas, Houston, TX, USA
Medical Research Council, London, England
Medical Research Council of Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Medical Research Council of New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand
Member of the Planning and Programme of Biblioteca Universalis and of the International
University: Pax et Veritas, Szentes, Hungary
LEGACY OF A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST
Professor Nicolae Simionescu
Nicolae Simionescu had a meteoric career. In ten years, starting with a good mind and a good general education, he became an accomplished, generally recognized authority in the cell biology of the vascular endothelium. In the next decade or so, under uncertain and difficult conditions of social and political nature, he organized a research institute and trained a whole team of capable investigators and in the next five years he assumed a position of leadership in the Romanian Academy, the highest institution guiding the creative activities of the country.
At every step in this rapid evolution, he left behind a lasting heritage: his research accomplishments; the Institute of Cellular Biology and Pathology, generations of well-trained investigators and a demanding but luminous vision for the future of nature sciences in Romania.
Professor George Emil Palade
University of California, San Diego, USA
Nicolae Simionescu was a citizen of the world, but was in the first place a Romanian through and through, down to his last red blood cell. He gave all his energies to build in Romania an island of excellence - on a world scale - and he did so despite enormous difficulties, pain, and personal danger. Shielded by his extraordinary presence, his scientific stature, his inspiring imagination, he fought for the future of young Romanians at his own risk,day after difficult day.
Nicolae has permanently enriched our lives. For those who had the privilege of knowing him personally, cherished memories will include flashes of his unbeatable sense of humour, which never left him even under the hardest circumstances. Although to the international scientific community he was the quintessence of a „pure“ researcher, in his private life he found the time to compose music at the keyboard, to paint and to write poetry; in this too he was an admirable role model for his younger associates. Among tangible gifts, Nicolae Simionescu left us a living monument - the ICBP - with a scientifically beautiful name and a beautiful mission. And, above all, for Romanians and for scientists the world over, his example of uncompromising courage will live on; heroes are needed more than ever in the difficult times that we are still living. Romania has lost a most distinguished son - but also acquired a precious legacy.
Professor Guido Majno University of Massachusetts, Worcester, USA
For us, Professor Nicolae Simionescu was a breath of fresh air in the hard time of the communist regime. He was a complete and complex personality, in which, the scrupulous scholar, the genuine scientist, the authentic educator, teacher, and the veritable patriot combined to bestow a remarkable human being. We have learned from our Magister the marvel of research, the meaning of the dedication to science, the ways to meet the success and failure, the sense of responsibility, the rigour, the ethics and the greatness of intellectual grace and moral values that should complement a genuine scientist.
Infinite gratitude to our Professor.
