Axel Hugo Teodor Theorell (also known as Hugo Theorell) spent the majority of his career studying the action of oxidation enzymes, proteins essential for the metabolic process in plants and animals. His isolation of the yellow enzyme in the mid-1930s was a breakthrough toward a clearer understanding of the transformation in the cell of food into energy, called cellular respiration. Theorell's discoveries provided basic knowledge for the eventual creation of artificial life in the laboratory, and were essential to the study of such diseases as cancer and tuberculosis. In a related area of study, his work on the alcohol-burning enzymes led to a new method for testing the alcohol content in blood. He was the first to isolate myoglobin, a substance that gives certain muscles their red color. He also studied cytochrome c, a catalytic enzyme responsible for causing energy reactions in mitochondria, the cell's "powerhouse." Theorell was awarded the 1955 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for "his discoveries concerning the nature and mode of action of oxidation enzymes."
Theorell was born in Linköping, Sweden, on July 6, 1903, to Thure and Armida Bell Theorell. His father was a medical officer in the local militia and enjoyed singing; his mother was a gifted pianist. Young Axel absorbed their love of music, and developed an interest in his father's profession that led him to decide on a career in medicine. He received his bachelor of medicine degree (1924) and his doctor of medicine (1930) from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He also studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. When a crippling attack of poliomyelitis made a career as a physician impractical, he decided instead to pursue research and teaching. His academic work while at Stockholm was an inquiry into the chemistry of plasma lipids (fatty acids) and their effect on red blood cells. A technique he developed at this time to separate the plasma proteins albumin and globulin was later to prove useful in his work on isolating enzymes (globular proteins) and coenzymes, which help to activate specific enzymes.
As professor of chemistry at Uppsala University from 1930 to 1936, Theorell expanded his research on plasma lipids to concentrate on myoglobin, a muscle protein whose oxygen-carrying capacities he compared to that of hemoglobin in the blood. By isolating (purifying) myoglobin, he was able to show its absorption and storage capacities, and to measure, using centrifugal force, its molecular weight. This determination of its physical properties showed that myoglobin was a separate protein from hemoglobin.
In 1933 Theorell received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation that enabled him to further his study of enzymes with Otto Warburg at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (now the Max Planck Institute) in Berlin. Warburg had attempted without success to isolate the yellow enzyme . Using his own methods, Theorell accomplished the isolation. He further separated the yellow enzyme into two parts: the catalytic coenzyme and the pure protein apoenzyme . He also found that the main ingredient of the yellow enzyme is the plasma protein albumin. An important corollary to the research was Theorell's discovery of the chemical chain reaction necessary for cellular oxidation or respiration. These contributions brought a test-tube creation of life closer to reality, and advanced the study of the chemical differences between normal and cancerous cells.
Returning to Stockholm, Theorell became head of the biochemistry department at the Karolinska Institute, part of a Nobel Institute established for the purpose of providing Theorell with further research opportunities. Under his direction, the department acquired a reputation for excellence that attracted biochemists from all over the world. It was here that Theorell continued his research on cytochrome c , succeeding in his attempts to purify it by 1939. He furthered this study that same year in the United States with his colleague, Linus Pauling, who discovered the alpha spiral (protein molecules arranged in a twisted-atom chain).
After World War II, a collaboration with Britton Chance of the University of Pennsylvania elucidated steps in the oxidation (breakdown) of alcohol and gave the process a name--the Theorell-Chance mechanism . Theorell's study of the enzymes that catalyze the oxidation, alcohol dehydrogenases, provided a new method for determining the level of alcohol in the bloodstream--a technique that came to be used by Sweden and West Germany to test the sobriety of their citizens. From a different perspective, Theorell's alcohol enzyme research pinpointed several bacterial strains, knowledge of which was thought to be useful in the treatment of tuberculosis.
Theorell published accounts of his findings in many scientific journals throughout Europe and the United States. His professional affiliations included membership in the Swedish Chemical Association, the Swedish Society of Physicians and Surgeons, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the International Union of Biochemistry, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to the 1955 Nobel Prize, he was awarded the Paul Karrer Medal in Chemistry of the University of Zurich, the Ciba Medal of the Biochemical Society in London, the Legion of Honor (France), and the Karolinska Institute 150th Jubilee Medal. Honorary degrees were bestowed upon him from Belgium, Brazil, the United States, and France.
His love for music continued throughout his life and played an important part in his social and community life. He played the violin and was active in Stockholm musical societies. In 1931 he married Elin Margit Alenius, a professional musician. They became parents of three sons. Theorell retired from the Nobel Institute in 1970. Afflicted with a stroke in 1974, his health deteriorated over the following years. He died on August 15, 1982, while vacationing on an island off the coast of Sweden.
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