Professor of developmental biology and former member of the Nobel Assembly Björn Vennström has passed away at the age of 75. He is survived by his wife Kristina, his children Karin and Anders and grandchildren.
Björn Vennström was a pioneer in numerous research fields. He was born in Finland in 1948 and completed his secondary education in 1967 at the Åland Lyceum in Mariehamn, where he developed an early fascination for DNA and the mysteries of the genome that eventually led him to Uppsala University.
Here, he went on to take his PhD in 1978 in Lennart Philipson’s research group. During this dawning age of molecular biology, Björn Vennström’s research contributed to fresh insights into gene regulation and transcription.
He continued his research as a postdoc in Michael Bishop’s laboratory at UCSF between 1978 and 1980, where he succeeded in proving that two viral oncogenes (v-erbA and v-erbB) had analogues in two genes in the cellular genome (c-erbA and c-erbB).
This was an important discovery, confirming as it did Bishop’s hypothesis that retroviral oncogenes originate from normal genes in the genome.
The discovery that viral oncogenes have a cellular origin earned Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus the Nobel Prize in 1989.
Following his successful sojourn in the USA, Björn Vennström returned to Uppsala University for three years until 1983, when he was recruited as a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), one of Europe’s foremost molecular biology research centres.
He spent five highly productive years at the EMBL, and to crown his achievements there he demonstrated that the c-erbA gene coded for a thyroid hormone receptor; it was a major finding that resounded around the world and opened up an entirely new research field in hormone biology.
His research gave rise to important discoveries
In 1987, Björn Vennström was recruited to KI, where he held the position of professor of developmental biology until his retirement in 2015. His research at KI gave rise to a number of important discoveries on the role of the thyroid hormone receptors during fetal development and in the adult, where, amongst other functions, it regulates the hypothalamus, heart and fat cells – research that has revealed new insights into how thyroid hormones operate in the body.
Björn Vennström was voted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1996.
Over and above his extremely productive research, Björn Vennström came to mean a great deal to KI in many ways. He was the first to establish ES-cell technology, which has since evolved into a core facility. He served as head of the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology between 1999 and 2002 and was placed at the helm of KI’s animal testing operations, where the departments’ small-scale activities were merged into the newly started Comparative Medicine department, a major and delicate undertaking.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to KI, Björn Vennström was awarded the Karolinska Institutet Silver Medal in 2014.
Chair of the Nobel Assembly
Björn Vennström also did important work for the Nobel prizes. He was elected onto the Nobel Assembly in 1993, becoming its chairperson in 2012. He was also a member of the Nobel Committee for many years.
He presented the 1995 Nobel Prize in the Stockholm Concert Hall and was always informed, creative and ready to discuss, but never without solid reasoning and respect for members of differing opinions.
We will always remember Björn Vennström as a 24-carat colleague who never failed to be respectful and interested in what other people had to say. He was supportive to colleagues, especially more junior researchers on their way up the career ladder.
He was altruistic in the sharing of his knowledge and would even support young researchers financially without asking anything in return. On the odd occasion Björn Vennström could come across as a little gruff and abrupt, but under the surface he was a true philanthropist who always looked out for his colleagues.
Outside his research, Björn Vennström nurtured many interests from carpentry to science-fiction novels, not to mention his profound knowledge of runic script and encounters with orangutangs in the rainforests of Borneo.
He described himself as an “ex-Ålander since leaving school” and Åland was where his heart truly lay – their island holiday home and its renovation were highpoints of Björn and Kristina Vennström’s life. Björn Vennström’s status as a popular Ålander was underlined by his appearance as one of the 2015 season’s “summer hosts” on Radio Åland.
We have lost a researcher who made an indelible mark on research and a highly respected colleague who cared greatly for other researchers, especially of a younger generation. His scientific discoveries will forever live on and his approach to research will be a beacon of inspiration for us all.
Text: Thomas Perlmann, Bertil Daneholt and Urban Lendahl
