Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius | Biography

Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius was a Swedish research scientist who developed effective methods for separating molecules, making purification and precision analysis of these vital structures possible. Born in Stockholm in 1902 to an academic family, Tiselius grew up in Göteborg after his father died when he was four. Tiselius's interest in science developed in grammar school, and he went on to study at the University of Uppsala, from where he received his master's degree in chemistry, physics, and mathematics in 1924.

In 1925 Tiselius became research assistant to his teacher, Theodor Svedberg (1884-1971), an eminent chemist with an absorbing interest in analyzing biological molecules. At the time, Svedberg was developing the high-speed centrifuge as a means of separating molecules. Svedberg had Tiselius work on another method of molecular separation, electrophoresis. Molecules of different sizes and electric charges move at different speeds and in different directions within an electric field. Electrophoresis uses this fact to separate and isolate varying molecules in a solution. Tiselius used electrophoresis to separate blood plasma proteins, earning his doctorate for this work and joining the chemistry faculty at Uppsala in 1930.

Remaining at Uppsala for the rest of his career, Tiselius became a professor of biochemistry and, later, director of Uppsala's Institute of Biochemistry. Under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Tiselius studied at Princeton University's Frick Chemical Laboratory from 1934 to 1935. There, he enjoyed contact with a number of well-known chemists, which reawakened his conviction that improved methods of separating molecules were crucial for the development of biochemistry. Back at the University of Uppsala, Tiselius turned again to electrophoresis. By keeping the temperature of the solution at 104° F(40° C), Tiselius eliminated much distortion in the molecules' movements. A redesigned U-shaped electrophoresis tube could be broken down into parts, each containing a protein isolated by the electrical separation process. Refractive optics provided pictures of bands of separated proteins. Tiselius and his co-workers used the improved electrophoresis method to separate the proteins in horse serum, the first time these elements of blood plasma had been studied. Tiselius and his colleagues separated many other medically and biologically important proteins via electrophoresis.

While continuing to develop methods of electrophoresis, Tiselius also increasingly concentrated on improving another technique for molecular separation, absorption chromatography. In this procedure, substances in solution are separated out on the basis of their varying abilities to stick (adsorb) to particular solids. Tiselius devised a new way, using refraction, to observe and measure the components separating the column of solution. He also developed displacement analysis of adsorption in 1943, which used a substance of higher adsorption affinity to displace solution components of weaker affinity. This method eliminated "tailing," contamination of one solution component with molecules from the component next to it in affinity. Tiselius and others were able to use his adsorption techniques to separate, purify, and analyze many medically important proteins, including insulin.

After receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1948 for his work in electrophoresis and chromatography, Tiselius continued to improve and refine techniques in both fields. His methods have been adopted by chemists around the world. In the latter decades of his life, Tiselius served on numerous government committees, belonged to many scientific organizations, and received eleven honorary doctorates. He was particularly concerned with the effect of expanding scientific knowledge on human welfare and founded the Nobel symposia to discuss the social and ethical implications of the award-winning developments. Tiselius died of a heart attack in Stockholm in 1971.