Bergstrom, Sune Karl

▪ 2005

      Swedish biochemist (b. Jan. 10, 1916, Stockholm, Swed.—d. Aug. 15, 2004, Stockholm), laid the groundwork for chemical research on prostaglandins, an important group of natural hormonelike substances that affect blood pressure, body temperature, allergic reactions, and other physiological functions. In the late 1950s he was the first to isolate prostaglandins (specifically PGE and PGF) and to determine their chemical composition. For their work on prostaglandins Bergström, Swedish biochemist Bengt I. Samuelsson (a student of Bergström's), and British pharmacologist John Robert Vane (q.v. (Vane, Sir John Robert )) were jointly awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Bergström received doctoral degrees (1944) in medicine and biochemistry from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. After holding research fellowships in London, New York, and Basel, Switz., he returned to Sweden in 1947 as professor of physiological chemistry at the University of Lund. He spent more than 20 years (1958–80) as professor of chemistry at the Karolinska Institute, where he also served as dean (1963–66) of the medical faculty and as the institute's rector (1969–77). Bergström was chairman of the Nobel Foundation (1975–87) and of the World Health Organization's Global Advisory Committee on Medical Research (1977–82).

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