Ernest Overton

{{Short description|British and Swedish physiologist and biologist}}

{{Infobox information appliance

| image =

}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Charles Ernest Overton (1865–1933) was a British and Swedish physiologist and biologist, now regarded as a pioneer of the theory of the cell membrane.{{cite book|title=Membrane Permeability: 100 Years Since Ernest Overton: 100 Years Since Ernest Overton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOxjtTE9koUC&pg=PA1|date=21 May 1999|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-08-058519-2|page=1}}

In the last years of the 19th century Overton did experimental work, allowing the distinction to be drawn between the cell wall of plants and their cytoplasmic membrane.{{cite book|author=Henry Harris|title=The Birth of the Cell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVsxFp3CyngC&pg=PA152|year=2000|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-08295-1|pages=152–}} He studied the permeability of a range of biological materials to around 500 chemical compounds.{{cite book|author=Randy O. Wayne|title=Plant Cell Biology: From Astronomy to Zoology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_biw80LgjwC&pg=PA18|date=15 September 2009|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-08-092127-3|page=18}}

In 1900, Overton proposed a biomembrane model "Overton Biomembrane Model" which stated that biomembranes are made up of lipids. He gave this statement on the basis of observation of transport of lipid soluble substances across the biomembranes.

He came to Lund University in Sweden as a professor, and married Louise Petrén-Overton, the first woman in Sweden with a doctorate in mathematics; they had four children.{{citation|url=https://skbl.se/en/article/LouisePetrenOverton|contribution=Hedvig Louise Beata Petrén-Overton|language=Swedish|title=Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon|trans-title=Biographical Dictionary of Swedish Women|first=Lisbeth|last=Larsson|accessdate=2019-01-13}}{{citation|url=http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A835112&dswid=3801|journal=Archives of ALGA|volume=3|year=2006|first=Lars|last=Haikola|title=Louise Petrén-Overton, my grandmother|pages=8–9}}