von Euler, Ulf

von Euler, Ulf,

1905–83, Swedish physiologist and pharmacologist, Ph.D. Karolinska Institute, 1930. He was a professor at the Karolinska Institute from 1930 to 1971. Von Euler won the 1970 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Bernard KatzKatz, Sir Bernard,
1911–2003, British biophysicist, b. Germany, M.D. Univ. of Leipzig, 1934; Ph.D. University College, London, 1938. Katz became a British subject in 1941.
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 and Julius AxelrodAxelrod, Julius
, 1912–2004, American biochemist whose work was influential in the development of pharmaceuticals, b. New York City, grad. City College, N.Y. (B.S. 1933), New York Univ. (M.S. 1941), George Washington Univ. (Ph.D. 1955).
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 for their work on the storage, release, and inactivation of neurotransmittersneurotransmitter,
chemical that transmits information across the junction (synapse) that separates one nerve cell (neuron) from another nerve cell or a muscle. Neurotransmitters are stored in the nerve cell's bulbous end (axon).
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. Von Euler discovered that norepinephrinenorepinephrine
, a neurotransmitter in the catecholamine family that mediates chemical communication in the sympathetic nervous system, a branch of the autonomic nervous system.
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 serves as a neurotransmitter at the nerve terminals of the sympathetic nervous system. The combined work of the three Nobelists provided important basic information about how messages are transmitted between nerve cells, paving the way for future research on nervous and mental disorders.