͵͵

In Memoriam

In memoriam: Bengt Samuelsson

Christopher Radka
Nov. 11, 2024

Bengt I. Samuelsson, a professor of medical biochemistry and biophysics at the Karolinska Institute, a lipid biochemist and a Nobel laureate died July 5. He was 90, and he had been a member of the ͵͵ and ͵͵ Biology since 1976.

portrait of Bengt Samuelsson
Bengt Samuelsson

Samuelsson was born May 21, 1934 in Halmstad, Sweden. He completed undergraduate studies at the University of Lund in southern Sweden and then moved to the Karolinska Institute for graduate work in biochemistry. In 1960, he earned his doctorate under the mentorship of Sune Bergström, studying prostaglandin structural biology, and then in 1961 he obtained a medical degree. In 1962, he briefly moved to Harvard University for a research fellowship in the before returning to the Karolinska Institute in the same year to join the faculty.

Over the next 16 years, Samuelsson worked at multiple institutions including as a visiting professor at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until he became dean of the medical faculty at the Karolinska Institute from 1978 until 1983. Samuelsson shared the with John Vane and his doctoral mentor, Sune Bergström, for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances. Then, from 1983 to 1995, Samuelsson served as president of the Karolinska Institute.

Bergström, his doctoral mentor, had also served as both dean and president of the Karolinska Institute, as well as sharing the Nobel Prize. A describes the partnership between Samuelsson and Bergström in detail.

Prostaglandins are a family of oxidized derivatives of arachidonic acid that play crucial roles in various physiological processes, including inflammation, body temperature regulation, thrombosis, and allergic reactions. Samuelsson authored 324 publications that have been cited over 46,000 times and by more than 350 patents. In a paper that has been cited over 1,200 times, he demonstrated that homogenized sheep glands can convert [1-14C]arachidonic acid to prostaglandins G2 and H2. Notably, both of these prostaglandins are known to induce aggregation in human platelets. In a paper that has been cited over 3,600 times, Samuelsson reports the discovery and structure of thromboxane A2, which is a biologically active compound produced by human platelets during the conversion of prostaglandin G2 to thromboxane B2. Ischemic stroke, one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide,  is particularly associated . Samuelsson’s research on prostaglandins, thromboxane, and related biomolecules, identified the agents and their production processes. This foundational work has later facilitated a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying ischemic stroke.

Göran K Hansson, a professor of medicine, talked about the significance of Samuelsson’s work in a .

“Very few scientists can open up a whole new field of knowledge. But that is what Bengt Samuelsson did,” Hansson said. “Based on Ulf von Euler's and Sune Bergström's discovery of prostaglandin, he mapped an entire biochemical continent of signaling molecules in the human body, and found that they are of great importance in the blood circulation, the respiratory system, the genitals, the immune system, the nervous system and almost the entire body.”

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Christopher Radka

Christopher D. Radka is an assistant professor studying lipid biochemistry in the microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics department at the University of Kentucky. He is an NIAID Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers K99/R00 award recipient and member of the ASBMB MOSAIC cohort. In his free time, Christopher enjoys gardening, reading, and spending time with his three children.

 

Related articles

In memoriam: Horst Schulz
Manfred Philipp
In memoriam: Charles Rock
Naushin Raheema
In memoriam: Charles Kasper
Poornima Sankar
In memoriam: Henry Bourne
ASBMB Today Staff

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in People

People highlights or most popular articles

Guiding grocery carts to shape healthy habits
Award

Guiding grocery carts to shape healthy habits

Nov. 21, 2024

Robert “Nate” Helsley will receive the Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator in Lipid Research Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.

Leading the charge for gender equity
Award

Leading the charge for gender equity

Nov. 19, 2024

Nicole Woitowich will receive the ASBMB Emerging Leadership Award at the 2025 ASBMB Annual meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.

Honors for de la Fuente, Mittag and De La Cruz
Member News

Honors for de la Fuente, Mittag and De La Cruz

Nov. 18, 2024

César de la Fuente receives the American Society of Microbiology’s Award for Early Career Basic Research. Tanja Mittag and Enrique M. De La Cruz are named fellows by the Biophysical Society.

In memoriam: Horst Schulz
In Memoriam

In memoriam: Horst Schulz

Nov. 18, 2024

He was a professor emeritus at City College of New York and at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan whose work concentrated on increasing our understanding of mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism and an ASBMB member since 1971.

Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins
Award

Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins

Nov. 14, 2024

Rohit Pappu will receive the 2025 DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12-15 in Chicago.

Join the pioneers of ferroptosis at cell death conference
In-person Conference

Join the pioneers of ferroptosis at cell death conference

Nov. 13, 2024

Meet Brent Stockwell, Xuejun Jiang and Jin Ye — the co-chairs of the ASBMB’s 2025 meeting on metabolic cross talk and biochemical homeostasis research.