Discovery of the LDL Receptor

The discovery of the LDL receptor is the identification of the cell-surface receptor that takes up low-density lipoprotein, the particle in which cholesterol travels in the blood. Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein found it in 1973 while working at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and went on to show how cells balance their own cholesterol production against the cholesterol delivered through the blood and diet, and how genetic abnormalities disturb that regulation. The receptor is a protein of 839 amino acids that mediates the endocytosis of cholesterol-rich LDL and also recognizes apolipoprotein E, and it is encoded by the LDLR gene on chromosome 19. Loss-of-function mutations in that gene are known to cause familial hypercholesterolaemia. Brown and Goldstein were awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this work.