Dr. Christian de Duve, a Belgian biochemist whose discoveries about the internal workings of cells shed light on genetic disorders such as Tay-Sachs disease and earned him a Nobel Prize in 1974, died at his home in Nethen, Belgium, on May 4. He was 95.

The cause was euthanasia, legal in Belgium, and administered by two doctors at Dr. de Duves request, his son Thierry said.

He was suffering from a number of health problems, including cancer and arrhythmia, Dr. Gunter Blobel, a colleague of Dr. de Duves at the Rockefeller University in Manhattan, said, and decided to end his life after falling a few weeks ago. He wanted to make the decision while he was still able to do it and not be a burden.

Dr. de Duve spent the last month writing letters to friends and colleagues telling them of his decision, and he put off his death until Thierry, who lives in Los Angeles, could be with him, along with his three other children, he told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir in an interview published after his death.

Beginning in the late 1940s, Dr. de Duve used a centrifuge and other techniques to separate and examine the inner components of cells. He discovered the lysosome, a tiny sack filled with enzymes that functions like a garbage disposal, destroying bacteria or parts of the cell that are old or worn out.

His discoveries helped unravel the biology of Tay-Sachs disease and more than two dozen other genetic diseases in which a shortage of lysosomal enzymes causes waste to accumulate in cells, eventually destroying them. In Tay-Sachs, a buildup of fatty substances in the brain and other tissues leads to blindness, paralysis, mental retardation and death.

After learning he had been awarded a Nobel, Dr. de Duve said that although his discoveries brought great intellectual satisfaction, his goal was to use them to conquer disease. Its now time to give mankind some practical benefit, he said.

He shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr. Albert Claude, who first used centrifugal techniques to glance inside cells, and Dr. George E. Palade, who pioneered using the electron microscope to better understand cell structures. Claude died in 1983; Palade died in 2008.

Before the scientists embarked on their research, the cell was perceived as a workbasket containing indeterminate parts. The scientists, working separately, transformed that view with discoveries of important cell components.

Claude discovered mitochondria, which store energy, and Palade discovered ribosomes, the protein factories within cells. The Karolinska Institute, in awarding the Nobel, credited the three scientists with giving birth to the field of modern cell biology.

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Genetic research earned biologist Christian de Duve a Nobel Prize

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