Ulf von Euler
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Ulf von Euler
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1970
Born: 7 February 1905, Stockholm, Sweden
Died: 9 March 1983, Stockholm, Sweden
Affiliation at the time of the award: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation”
Prize share: 1/3
Work
Human and animal nervous systems consist of a large variety of cells with long nerve fibers. Small electrical currents and special chemical substances (neurotransmitters) are passed between cells through contacts (synapses). In 1947 Ulf von Euler discovered the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which plays an important role in producing fight-or-flight signals. He subsequently showed that norepinephrine is formed and stored in packages, or vesicles, sent between neurons via synapses.
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