Ulf Svante von Euler

Born Feb. 7, 1905, in Stockholm. Swedish physiologist. Son of H. von Euler-Chelpin.

In 1929, von Euler graduated from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where he served as an assistant professor in the pharmacology department in 1930 and became professor of physiology in 1939. In 1930 he worked in H. Dale’s laboratory in London, where he discovered the presence of a biologically active polypeptide, substance P, in intestinal tissue. His main research is concerned with the physiology of adrenergic nerve endings. Von Euler discovered that norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter of the sympathetic nervous system. He investigated in detail its distribution in nerves and organs and its metabolism under a variety of physiological and pathological conditions. Von Euler also discovered and studied the function of prostaglandin (1936) and norepinephrine (1946). He found subcellular particles containing norepinephrine and elucidated the mechanisms by which they obtain, store, and release norepinephrine.

Von Euler is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Danish Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists, and the Royal Society of London (1973). He won a Nobel Prize in 1970, together with B. Katz and J. Axelrod.