Bergström, Sune K.

▪ Swedish biochemist

born January 10, 1916, Stockholm, Sweden

died August 15, 2004, Stockholm

      Swedish biochemist, corecipient with fellow Swede Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson (Samuelsson, Bengt Ingemar) and Englishman John Robert Vane (Vane, Sir John Robert) of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. All three were honoured for their isolation, identification, and analysis of prostaglandins (prostaglandin), which are biochemical compounds that influence blood pressure, body temperature, allergic reactions, and other physiological phenomena in mammals. Bergström was the first to demonstrate the existence of more than one such compound and to determine the elemental compositions of two of them.

      Bergström was educated at the Karolïnska Institute in Stockholm, where he was awarded doctoral degrees in medicine and biochemistry in 1944. He held research fellowships at Columbia University and at the University of Basel, then returned to Sweden to accept a professorship of chemistry at the University of Lund.

      In 1958 Bergström returned to the Karolïnska Institute, where he became dean of the medical faculty in 1963 and rector in 1969. After retiring from teaching in 1981, he continued to conduct research. He was also chairman of the Nobel Foundation (1975–87) and chairman of medical research at the World Health Organization (1977–82).

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