Renowned biophysicist Frederick Sachs dies at 82

Frederick Sachs, a world-renowned biophysicist and member of the UB faculty for nearly 50 years, died Dec. 27. He was 82.

Sachs, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, spent a major portion of his career investigating how cells sense physical forces, like touch, at the molecular level. His research interests centered around mechanical and electrical biophysics — from molecules to organs — and development of scientific tools, such as the creation of an ultra-fast pressure stimulator and a sensor chip to measure cell volume in real time.

His greatest lifetime achievement – and one that will undoubtedly stand the test of time — is his profound contributions to the field of biomedical research called mechanical transduction.

Sachs made his seminal discovery in 1983, identifying and characterizing the first mechanosensitive ion channels. Found in every cell of the body, these sensors form the basis of our senses of hearing, touch, balance and tissue volume.

His laboratory rapidly became a center for work on mechanosensitive ion channels, and researchers from around the world visited to learn techniques used to study these channels in different cells.

In addition to understanding the basic science of cell properties, Sachs explored how biomechanics is involved in disease progression, and the discovery of drugs to intervene.

He led research that resulted in identification of a peptide found in Chilean rose tarantula venom that suppresses mechanical senses in cells. This discovery entered preclinical testing as a treatment for individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy whose muscles have dysregulated mechanical responses.

Beyond spider venom, Sachs also conducted the first voltage clamp studies of isolated adult heart cells. He was also responsible for the first single-channel recording from tissue-cultured cells.

Sachs developed novel biophysical concepts through the innovative use of quantitative electrophysiology; bright field, fluorescence, internal reflection, atomic force and electron microscopy; auditory biophysics; mathematical modeling, programming, instrument and software design; and silicon microfabrication.

After developing the tools to characterize the mechanosensitive ion channels, Sachs discovered, through natural products screening, that a component of tarantula venom could act as a pharmacological agent to specifically block these channels. To date, it is the only biological substance known to possess this property.

He solved the molecular structure of the venom peptide and synthesized it, work that opened an important new area of drug development.

To help develop the peptide as a drug, he co-founded in 2009 the UB spinoff Tonus Therapeutics with colleagues Thomas M. Suchyna, research associate professor, and the late Philip Gottlieb, research associate professor — along with Jeff Harvey, a local stockbroker whose grandson had Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

That tarantula peptide, called GsMTx-4, was modified and chemically synthesized in the laboratory, and is being tested as a potential therapy designed to slow the muscle deterioration that characterizes muscular dystrophy.

The Food and Drug Administration designated GsMTx4 as an orphan drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a designation recognizing promising methods of treating rare diseases with the potential to fast-track its approval.

Suchyna began working with Sachs at the start of his career in 1997. “At that point Fred was the ‘king of mechanosensitive channel research,’ so I was stepping into a lab that was at the forefront of a burgeoning research field, which was a huge step in my career,” Suchyna says.

“Fred was incredible at thinking outside the box, always asking us to try a different, and usually unorthodox, approach. He would come up with the most incredible experiments that other investigators would consider too difficult. And for the school itself, his publications brought so much notoriety to our department,” he adds.

“At this point, we are still developing GsMTx4 further. We are actively modifying the peptide, looking at ways to make it a biomarker for tissues under mechanical stress, and also trying to target the peptide to specific tissues to reduce off-target effects and increase its attractiveness to pharmaceutical companies,” he says.

“Fred was actively advising me on these projects up to last week.”

Sachs was the recipient of numerous patents and awards over the course of his career, including the 2013 Kenneth S. Cole Award from the Biophysical Society — an award given to only one investigator annually — for his significant contributions to the understanding of cell membrane biophysics.

Other honors included the SUNY Chancellor’s Research Recognition Award (2003), SUNY Distinguished Inventor (2002), UB Distinguished Professor (2002), UB MiniMed Lecture (2002), Stockton Kimball Award (2001), NSF Nanotechnology Review Panel (2001), a Fogarty Fellowship (1992) and the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at UB’s Inventors and Entrepreneurs Reception in 2015.

He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 by Alexander G. Petrov, a professor of physics and fellow of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Sachs was also recognized by the 1987 Guinness Book of World Records as the inventor of the world’s smallest thermometer, the ultra-micro-thermometer. The device, about one-fifth of the thickness of a human hair, played a pivotal role in measuring the temperature of single cells.

Outside the lab, Sachs spent considerable time on artistic pursuits.

He was an avid banjo player and performed a large repertoire of folk songs, getting together weekly to jam with other musician friends.

Sachs also used kayaking as a form of meditation, and enjoyed the rhythm of just floating on the waves in the Niagara River.

Growing up on a farm in Putnam County, he learned to weld as a young man. Decades later, he returned to welded steel sculpture as an art form, using principles of physics to explore motion, wind and balance.

For Sachs, steel sculpture represented a totally different mindset from conducting research in his lab.

“It is possible to represent emotions, such as happiness, sadness, amusement and even something a bit more complex, such as disappointment. It doesn’t take much steel to do it, but it does take imagination and a bit of patience, which I enjoy,” Sachs said in a 2016 interview about his art in UBNow. 

“The return is so immediate compared to writing grants. That, really, is my reward, especially when the piece turns out the way I wanted it to,” he said. “When you can walk away and come back and look at it and like what you’ve done, that is all the applause I need.”