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It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Professor Max Lab on 28th January 2016. Max has been a great friend and colleague for many years, having started as a Lecturer in the Department of Physiology, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in 1969, and was active as an Senior Research Investigator in the NHLI at Hammersmith until a few weeks before the time of his death.
He was world-famous for discovering the phenomenon of mechano-electric feedback in the heart, and spent his scientific career studying its underlying basis. He supported many young scientists who are now themselves eminent. For example, he championed Professors Yuri Korchev (Medicine) and Julia Gorelik (NHLI) in developing their novel Scanning Ion Conductance Microscope, and it was fitting that his final paper using this technology in a new way for mechanical stimulus of live single cardiomyocytes was published in Cell Reports on 5th January this year. Prof Peter Kohl, who holds the Chair in Cardiac Biophysics and Systems Biology at NHLI, was one of Max’s trainees, and is currently setting up the new Research Centre for Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Freiburg. Max used his semi-retirement to take advantage of all the wealth of events at Imperial. Many of you will have observed his penetrating questioning at seminars, and may also have visited the exhibition of his sculptures at the SALC in South Kensington. He will be very much missed here and across the world.