Charles Philippe Leblond. 5 February 1910 — 10 April 2007

In the modern world of cell biology, it is understood that virtually all cells in the body continuously synthesize a multitude ofproteins, and the pathways of synthesis and secretion of these proteins are well established. The continuous turnover of cells in many tissuesis also an accepted idea, and embryonic and adult stem cells are of central importance, both for the cellular economy and in malignant transformation. None of these phenomena were understood at the beginning of the career of Charles Philippe Leblond, and his extraordinary contributions to these fields have fundamen–tally changed our concepts of cell biology.