Bengt I. Samuelsson
| Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 May 1934 |
| Nationality | Sweden |
| Fields | biochemistry |
| Known for | prostaglandins |
| Notable awards |
Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1975) Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1982) |
Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson (born 21 May 1934) is a Swedish biochemist.
He was born in Halmstad in southwest Sweden and studied at Stockholm University, where he became a professor in 1967. 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. In 1975, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University together with Sune K. Bergström. 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.
References
- Raju, T N (1999), "The Nobel chronicles. 1982: Sune Karl Bergström (b 1916); Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson (b 1934); John Robert Vane (b 1927)", Lancet (27 November 1999) 354 (9193): 1914, PMID 10584758
External links
| Non-profit organization positions | ||
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| Preceded by Lars Gyllensten |
Chairman of the Nobel Foundation 1993–2005 |
Succeeded by Marcus Storch |
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