Background

Ulf von Euler was born on February 7, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a son of two prominent scientists, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, a Nobel prize-winning chemist, and Astrid Cleve von Euler, a botanist, geologist and chemist. Ulf's maternal grandfather was Per Teodor Cleve, a chemist and biologist. Also, Leonhard Euler, a mathematician, physicist and astronomer, was his great-great-great-great grandfather.

Education

At the age of seventeen, Ulf von Euler co-authored his first scientific paper with the help of his father. He stepped into his parents' shoes and in 1922, he went to study medicine at the Karolinska Institute. There, at the institute, he studied under Robin Fåhraeus in blood sedimentation and rheology and did research work on the pathophysiology of vasoconstriction. In 1930, Ulf received a Doctor of Medicine degree from Karolinska Institute.

Moreover, during the period from 1930 till 1931, Ulf, having received a Rochester Fellowship, did his post-doctoral studies abroad. He studied with Sir Henry Dale in London and with I. de Burgh Daly in Birmingham, and then proceeded his studies under Corneille Heymans in Ghent, Belgium, and with Gustav Embden in Frankfurt, Germany.

Later, in 1934, Ulf also learned biophysics under Archibald Vivian Hill, again in London, and also studied neuromuscular transmission with G. L. Brown in 1938.

Moreover, Ulf received numerous honorary doctorate degrees from the universities around the world.

Career

In 1930, with the aid of a Rockefeller Fellowship, von Euler traveled to London to work and study at the laboratory of Henry Hallett Dale, who would himself win a Nobel Prize in 1936 for discoveries, relating to the chemical transmission of nerve impulses. Ulf remained in Dale's laboratory until 1931.

At the time, when von Euler arrived to work with Henry Hallett Dale in his laboratory, one particular compound — acetylcholine — was the focus of most of the study. It was while Ulf was conducting an experiment, involving acetylcholine, that he made his first significant observation. He noticed, that a section of rabbit intestine would contract whenever it was exposed to an intestinal extract. Surprisingly, though, the addition of atropine to the extract fluid did not suppress the contraction, as was expected. Then, young von Euler exuberantly declared, that he had discovered a new biologically active substance — a bold claim, that was soon borne out.

Along with John H. Gaddum, a senior assistant at the laboratory, von Euler spent the next few months, systematically studying the effects of this newly identified compound. The two men demonstrated, that extracts of brain would also contract the rabbit gut, and that the extracts, that accomplished this result, also had the effect of lowering the blood pressure as well. In order to carry out their investigations, the men used a purified preparation, abbreviated "P". Thus, quite unintentionally, the chemical agent, causing these effects, became known as Substance P. Back in Sweden, von Euler established, that this substance had the properties of a polypeptide, a molecular chain of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins).

In 1931, Ulf returned to the Karolinska Institute, where he was made an assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology. In 1939, he was named a professor and chair of the physiology department there, positions, in which he remained until his retirement in 1971.

In 1934, von Euler made the second most important discovery in his career. While continuing his tests on different kinds of tissue extracts, he found, that extracts of sheep vesicular gland dramatically lowered blood pressure, when injected into animals. He realized, that some unknown factor in the extracts was exerting a powerful physiological effect. Human seminal fluid also seemed to contain this unidentified substance. Soon, it became clear, that the factor was a fatty acid. Von Euler dubbed it prostaglandin, in the mistaken belief, that it originated in the prostate gland.

During the 1930's, von Euler followed up this finding, describing methods for extracting the compound, as well as defining its basic properties. However, it was not until the late 1950's, that von Euler’s protege at the Karolinska Institute, Sune Karl Bergstroem, used newly developed technology to achieve the first purification of a prostaglandin. Subsequent research revealed, that prostaglandins are not a single substance, but a group of chemical compounds, that perform a variety of jobs throughout the body, including playing a major role in reproduction.

Meanwhile, von Euler continued the search for chemical transmitters, that allow nerve cells to communicate. The idea, that such neurotransmitters might exist, had been proposed as early as 1905, but it was not until forty-one years later, that von Euler succeeded in detecting a critical one in the sympathetic nervous system, which controls such automatic actions, as the body’s response to stress. He had already observed, that certain biological extracts seemed to contain a substance, that was similar to adrenaline, yet different in some of its actions. Von Euler set about pinpointing this substance, which he soon established to be noradrenaline (also called norepinephrine).

Later, von Euler investigated the way certain nerve endings store and release noradrenaline. Other of his studies dealt with the role of chemical agents in regulating respiration, circulation and blood pressure. It was for his ground-breaking experiments, involving noradrenaline, that von Euler shared the 1970 Nobel Prize with Julius Axelrod of the United States and Bernard Katz of Great Britain, two other prominent figures in the study of chemical transmitters.

In addition, from 1946 to 1947, Ulf worked with Eduardo Braun-Menéndez at the Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental in Buenos Aires. Also, in 1965, he was appointed a chairman of the Board of Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. From 1965 till 1971, he served as a vice-president of the International Union of Physiological Sciences.

Moreover, during his career, Ulf acted as a chief editor of the journal Acta Physiologica Scandinavica for many years.

Achievements

• Ulf von Euler was a well-known physiologist and pharmacologist, who gained prominence for discovering substance P and prostaglandin, two important compounds, that have since been studied extensively. Prostaglandins have become valuable to doctors for the treatment of many disorders, and may be used to treat blood pressure problems, infertility, peptic ulcers and asthma. Moreover, Ulf discovered other important endogenous active substances, such as vesiglandin, piperidine and noradrenaline.
  
  During his stint at the Karolinska Institute, in collaboration with Göran Liljestrand, Ulf made an important discovery, which was named the Euler–Liljestrand mechanism (a physiological arterial shunt in response to the decrease in local oxygenation of the lungs).
  
  In addition, von Euler became the first person to isolate and identify noradrenaline, a key transmitter of nerve impulses, which control such involuntary functions, as the heartbeat. For this accomplishment, he was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
  
  Also, during his lifetime, Ulf received many other awards, including Carl Ludwig Medaille in 1953, Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1961, Stouffer Prize in 1967, Order of the North Star and others.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Prostaglandins

    (This work was written by Ulf von Euler and Rune Eliasson.)

    1967
  • Substance P

    (This work was edited by Ulf von Euler and Bengt Pernow.)

    1977
  • Release and uptake functions in adrenergic nerve granules

    (Sherrington lectures.)

    1980
  • Comparative Endocrinology

    (Volume 1. Edited by Ulf von Euler and H. Heller.)

    1963

Views

Quotations: "There are few things as rewarding for a scientist as having young students starting their research work and finding, that they have made an original observation. The pleasure of witnessing the progress of the young starting fresh is one, which the scientist has every reason to feel happy about and where he can assist by means of his experience. We must always guard the liberties of the mind and remember, that some degree of heresy is often a sign of health in spiritual life."

Membership

Ulf was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, as well as other organizations.

• president

  Nobel Foundation , Sweden

  1966 - 1975

• 

  member

  Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , Sweden

• foreign member

  Royal Society , United Kingdom

  1973

• founding member

  World Cultural Council , Mexico

  1981

Personality

Ulf von Euler was not only an eminent researcher, however, but he was also known as a fine teacher, who nurtured the curiosity of his pupils.

Interests

• Traveling

Connections

Ulf married Jane Sodenstierna on April 12, 1930. Their marriage produced four children — Hans Leo, a scientist administrator at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Johan Christopher, an anesthesiologist, Ursula Katarina, an art historian, and Marie Jane, a chemical engineer. However, in 1957, Ulf and Jane divorced. Later, on August 20, 1958, Ulf married Dagmar Cronstedt, a radio host.

Father:

Hans von Euler-Chelpin

Mother:

Astrid Cleve von Euler

child:

Ursula Katarina von Euler

child:

Marie Jane von Euler

child:

Leo von Euler

child:

Johan Christopher von Euler

First wife:

Jane Sodenstierna

Second wife:

Dagmar Cronstedt

Dagmar was a Swedish countess, who, during the Second World War, worked at Radio Königsberg, broadcasting German propaganda to neutral Sweden.

Grandfather:

Per Teodor Cleve

great-great-great-great grandfather:

Leonhard Euler

mentor:

Robin Fåhraeus

colleague:

Göran Liljestrand

mentor:

Henry Hallett Dale

mentor:

Corneille Heymans

mentor:

Gustav Embden

mentor:

Archibald Hill

mentor:

G. L. Brown