In Memoriam: Richard Paul Bunge

Obituary of insight into the mechanisms of myelination and of In Memoriam: neuronal–glial interactions. Wood, Dick established that the axon was mitogenic for Schwann cells and oligodendrocytes (Wood and Bunge, 1975, 1986), providing the first example of the biological The neuroscience community has lost a pioneer, a men-activity we now recognize as the neuregulin family of tor, and a generous colleague with the death of Dr. growth factors. The Bunges demonstrated (Bunge et al., Richard Paul Bunge on September 10, 1996, at the age 1989) that the myelin sheath develops by advancement of sixty four. A man of great integrity and modesty, Dick of the inner spiral around the axon (see Figure 2) rather had a profound influence on our field. For him, science than via circumnavigation of the Schwann cell body was its own reward; he did not seek to personalize his around the axon, as previously suggested. They recog-achievements. nized the importance of the Schwann cell basal lamina Dick was a product of the heartland, the son of a small for normal myelination (Bunge et al., 1986) and began town South Dakotan minister. He attended college and studies on the functional role in myelination of sev-medical school at the University of Wisconsin. While eral cell adhesion molecules. Dick appreciated that still a medical student working part-time in a research Schwann cells are an important source of trophic factors laboratory to defray his tuition, he published his first (Varon and Bunge, 1978) and this notion, together with paper, and thereafter, he embraced a career in basic the recognized capacity of the Schwann cell to promote science while retaining an eye for its clinical potential. regeneration, lead him to propose early on the possibility He married a young graduate student, Mary Elizabeth of transplanting glial cells into the central nervous sys-Bartlett, who was to become his close scientific collabo-tem to treat neurologic disorders (Bunge, 1975). rator. Many of their major findings grew out of this lifelong partnership. For legions of students and junior associates , the Bunges were role models, a professional couple who enjoyed highly successful research careers and yet maintained a vibrant family life with their two sons. In Madison, they began by investigating the paralysis that results from repetitive, partial exchanges of the cerebrospinal fluid in the cat spinal cord, a procedure they showed leads to substantial demyelination (Bunge et al., 1960). Using this paradigm in a …