Einstein Mourns the Loss of Pioneering Neuroscientist, Michael V.L. Bennett
On November 16, 2023, Einstein learned that Dr. Michael Vander Laan (V.L.) Bennett, distinguished professor emeritus in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience and a longtime, beloved faculty member, died; he was 92.
Mike, as he was known to colleagues, trainees, and friends, was a pioneering neuroscientist and world-renowned authority in the field of intercellular communication in the nervous system. His research showed that electrical synapses play critical roles in connecting neurons and it is now known that they are especially important in synchronizing inhibitory interneurons in the mammalian brain.
“Mike was a true pioneer and left a huge imprint on us all,” noted Adam Kohn, Ph.D., interim chair of the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience—a department for which Mike himself once served as chair from 1982 to 1986.
Although emeritus in title, Mike remained active in research and was a revered mentor to dozens of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior colleagues. His leaderships roles went beyond his laboratory findings, chairmanship, and teaching. He was named the Sylvia and Robert S. Olnick Professor of Neuroscience in 1986, and he received the distinction of distinguished professor in 2005.
“Mike’s lab and also department, when he became chair, were the premier international center for gap junction electrophysiology, and much of the early molecular and cell biological studies of gap junctions and electrical synapses have been done here at Einstein,” said David Spray, Ph.D., a colleague in Einstein’s neuroscience department, who came to the College of Medicine to be a postdoc in the Bennett lab.
Dave added, “I met Mike Bennett when I was a Grass Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and was impressed with his approach to exploit the advantages of invertebrates and fish for electrophysiology studies that established him as a premier general physiologist. I was lured to become a part of his lab by the novel approach at the time to combine anatomical, biochemical, and morphological approaches to studying the nervous system.” (Mike also was a Grass Fellow at MBL, in 1958, and had worked there as a teen, as well.)
The Path to Pioneering Neuroscientist
Mike received his undergraduate degree in zoology from Yale University, where he also was a competitive gymnast. He was then awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he obtained his D.Phil. degree (the British equivalent of a Ph.D.) from Balliol College in 1957. His doctoral dissertation focused on the functional organization of the mammalian cortex.
Mike then joined the lab of Harry Grundfest, Ph.D., at Columbia, where his interest in studying the activities of neurons and effector cells in a vast assortment of exotic invertebrates and fish species was truly ignited. The lab offered Mike insights into nervous systems that are specialized for activities requiring synchronized or rapid transmission.
Then, during his Grass fellowship at the MBL, Mike’s studies of synchronous firing among supramedullary neurons in pufferfish provided the first evidence of electrical coupling in the vertebrate brain—a finding that contributed to his lifelong interest in this form of synaptic communication. His later studies—of synaptic connections between the hatchetfish Mauthner cell and motoneuron, and of toadfish oculomotor neuron coupling—were fundamental in revealing elements of precise timing and synchrony in coupled neuron circuits.
Mike Bennett at Woods Hole, MA, holding a small skate fish.
Following his doctoral work, Mike joined the faculty at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the mid-1960s, after after he had risen through the assistant and associate faculty ranks in neurology there. He moved to the College of Medicine as a professor of anatomy. He was recruited by Dominick P. Purpura, who created the department of neuroscience at Einstein in 1974 that now bears his name.
By 1970, aftrer examining the structural synapses, Mike and his collaborators George Pappas, Yasuko Nakajima, and Shigehiro Nakajima demonstrated that electrical coupling was a common mode of synaptic connection among premotor electric fish neurons. They also found evidence supporting the anatomical correlate of this electrical coupling: cell-cell junctions, which came to be known as “gap junctions.”
By this time, Mike had published numerous studies establishing the co-existence of electrical and chemical synapses. He had also shown that electrical transmission is advantageous for speed and synchrony in the brains of lower vertebrates. To reinforce the relevance of these findings, he also authored review articles to highlight their critical significance.
Key discoveries initiated in Mike’s lab also demonstrated that the channels mediating the electrical synapses were gated by voltage and by intracellular pH and were modified by phosphorylation. He was pleased when examples of electrical synaptic transmission began to be discovered in the mammalian brain, since those findings corroborated his seminal observations, which came to define this field of research and established Mike as the world’s leading expert in this area. To this day, Einstein remains world renowned for the study of gap junctions.
Deserved Recognition and Ongoing Study
Based on his discoveries dealing with electrical transmission and gap junctions, Mike was elected to membership in the National Academy of Science in 1981. Nobel laureate Eric Kandel recommended him for the honor.
Mike’s laboratory continued to make major discoveries in this area through to this year. His recent research interests have included unpaired gap junction hemichannels and their role in central nervous system pathology, gap junction plasticity in the vertebrate brain, and structure-function analysis through connexin mutagenesis.
Mike also contributed significantly to our understanding of the biophysical properties, regulatory mechanisms, and functional relevance of two distinct ionotropic receptors activated by the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. With his wife and colleague R. Suzanne Zukin, Ph.D., —also professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience —Mike identified molecular mechanisms by which NMDA receptor trafficking and function are controlled by protein kinases, such as PKC and PKA.
Their findings, independently reproduced by several other groups, revealed a key mechanism whereby neuromodulatory systems targeting these kinases can regulate synaptic function and finetune neuronal circuits.
He and Suzanne also found evidence supporting the so-called “GluR2 hypothesis,” establishing that calcium-permeable AMPA receptors lacking the GluR2 subunit contribute to the delayed degeneration following global ischemia and experimental epilepsy. Their findings led to novel strategies for treating these neurological conditions by manipulating the expression and functional properties of AMPA receptors lacking GluR2.
From MBL Grass Fellow to Inspiring Teacher
Before and during his more than 50 years at Einstein, Mike maintained a lab every summer at the MBL in Woods Hole, MA. where he maintained a laboratory every summer. There he actively contributed to the MBL’s ”Monday Night Fights,” so called because contentious scientific exchanges occurred during the weekly seminars presented by resident biophysicists and neuroscientists.
Mike and MBL colleague John Dowling were instrumental in creating the Neurobiology Course at MBL, arguably one of the best neuroscience courses in the world.
“The MBL was a summer gathering place for a literal who’s who list of scientists that wrote the textbooks on understanding the workings of excitable cells, particularly neurons,” recalled Vyto Verselis, Ph.D., another Bennett disciple and longtime Einstein colleague. “Being a mentee of Mike meant that you got to share in that experience, starting with my first summer at the MBL as a Grass Fellow with him as my sponsor, and for several more summers thereafter. Mike understood the value of that environment and I am forever grateful to have experienced it.”
“Mike’s brilliant intellect and critical appraisal of scientific results and concepts are legendary,” said Dave Spray. “Even more impactful for those of us who were his trainees was his wide foundational knowledge and his exceptional appreciation of how general physiological principles could be understood through using organisms specialized for specific functions. Mike was a true biologist.”
He added, “Neuroscience has lost a giant who led in the origins of the discipline, and I have lost someone from whom I learned in every interaction.”
An Inspiring Mentor and Colleague
Dave Hall, yet another former postdoc and longtime Einstein colleague, said, “Mike was an inspiring leader who was a recognized expert in a broad range of fields, from ethology and animal behavior to the electrophysiology of both the vertebrate and invertebrate brains, and to molecular mechanisms of channel gating and memory consolidation. His lab included live studies on the electric organ of electric eel, the stomatogastric ganglion of mollusk, many fish species, and simpler studies of neurons in culture. He trained generations of scientists in electrophysiology, and later, with Suzanne, pioneered studies of synaptic transmission of repetitive signals. He remained closely interested in neuroscience until the end of his life.”
Dave Spray observed, “As a mentor, Mike promoted independence and, as colleague, he allowed and even encouraged the establishment of strong collaborations without roadblocks. He also was generous with his criticism, loved novel ideas and interpretations, and was maddeningly correct in many of our disagreements.”
His Early Years and Family Life
Mike was born on January 7, 1931, in Madison, Wisconsin, to a family with a rich tradition of high social conscience and intellectual curiosity. His paternal grandmother, a prominent suffragette, ran for the United States Senate in 1921 and was among the co-founders of the Hartford branch of the NAACP in conjunction with W.E.B. DuBois. Following his parents’ separation, Mike and his older brother grew up in Albany, NY and Belle Haven and Alexandria, VA.
While working at Columbia, Mike met his first wife, Ruth Bennett, Ph.D. They were married for 30 years and had two children, Nicholas and Elena, both of whom had summer jobs as teenagers, in MBL laboratories. Mike was remarried in the late 1990s to Einstein colleague R. Suzanne Zukin.
An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed traveling, downhill skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, and running. He competed in some 26 marathons and in the annual race from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights for 49 years, among other road races. Running was a particular passion of his, and he was known for commuting the seven miles to Einstein on foot, from his home in Riverdale and back, daily. He continued running into his 80s.
Dave Hall recalled, “He was particularly proud of having his photograph on the pages of Sports Illustrated as he crossed the finish line in a footrace.”
Mike is survived by his wife, Suzanne; his son Nicholas and daughter Elena; their mother, Ruth; his stepdaughter, Heather Zukin and her family; his sister, Dr. Heather (Bonnie) Bennett McCabe; and many nieces, nephews, cousins, and beloved friends. He was predeceased by his older brother John, and by his stepdaughter, Valerie Zukin, and is fondly remembered and cherished by generations of his colleagues and trainees—and their trainees—throughout the United States and internationally. He was one of a kind, and we will dearly miss him.
Editor's Note: If you would like to leave a remembrance of Dr. Bennett or condolence message, please visit our Remembrance page.
Posted on: Friday, January 05, 2024