Nationality Sweden Name Bengt Samuelsson | ||
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Born Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson 21 May 1934 (age 89) ( 1934-05-21 ) Notable awards Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1975)Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1982)ForMemRS (1990) Awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Similar People Sune Bergstrom, John Vane, Ulf von Euler, Jan‑Ake Gustafsson | ||
Bengt I. Samuelsson | Wikipedia audio article
Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson (born 21 May 1934) is a Swedish biochemist. He shared with Sune K. Bergström and John R. Vane the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related substances.
Contents
- Bengt I Samuelsson Wikipedia audio article
- Education and early life
- Research and career
- Awards and honors
- References
Education and early life
He was born in Halmstad in southwest Sweden and studied at Stockholm University, where he became a professor in 1967.
Research and career
Discussing the role of prostaglandins in the body, Samuelsson explained, "It's a control system for the cells that participates in many biological functions. There are endless possibilities of manipulating this system in drug development."
His research interests were originally in cholesterol metabolism with importance to reaction mechanisms. Following the structural work on prostaglandins along with Sune Bergström he was interested mainly in the transformation products of arachidonic acid. This has led to the identification of endoperoxides, thromboxanes and the leukotrienes, and his group has chiefly been involved in studying the chemistry, biochemistry and biology of these compounds and their function in biological control systems. This research has implications in numerous clinical areas, especially in thrombosis, inflammation, and allergy.
This field has grown enormously since those days. Between 1981 and 1995 about three thousand papers per year were published that specifically used the expression "prostaglandins," or related terms such as "prostacyclins," "leukotrienes," and "thromboxanes," in their labels and titles.
Bengt Samuelsson has served as a director on the boards of Pharmacia AB, NicOx SA and Schering AG and is an advisor to the venture capital fund HealthCap.
Awards and honors
In 1975, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Sune K. Bergström. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1990.