Torbjörn Caspersson

Torbjörn Oskar Caspersson (* October 15, 1910 in Motala; † 7 December 1997) was a Swedish cell biologist and geneticist.

Life

At the University of Stockholm, he studied medicine and biophysics and earned his MD in 1936.

With his teacher, the biochemist Einar Hammarsten ( who had worked at the Karolinska Institute with George de Hevesy ) and Rudolf Signer, he examined the viscosity and birefringence of DNA solutions; before they separated the DNA by high-pressure filtration of residues of the denatured proteins. Since the early 1930s, he developed the technique of recording of UV absorption spectra of nucleic acids and UV microscopy of cells. In 1934, he exhibited with Hammarsten that DNA is a polymer. William Astbury he provided with DNA samples.

Caspersson worked on the Physiological- chemical department of the Karolinska Institute at Stockholm.

1936, investigated the genetic material in the cell with a monochromatic UV microscope which he developed in sequence.

In 1937 he took a DNA sample, which he had isolated from calf thymus, to Bern at Rudolf Signer. They described the macromolecular nature of the nucleic acid. At that time there was currently the tetranucleotide hypothesis of Phoebus Levene of the Rockefeller Institute.

Around 1940, he observed, in collaboration with Jack Schultz ( 1904-1971 ) of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena - similar to the embryologist Jean Brachet in Brussels - a correlation between the synthesis of proteins and the amount of cytoplasmic ribonucleic acid in metabolically active cells.

From 1944 to 1977 he was a professor at the Karolinska Institute. His research group has developed, among other things with Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen the commercial Universal Mikrospektrofotometer ( UMSP ). The device consisted of two microscopes; in one there was the absorbent (biological ) object, the other provided the value of the full monochromatic light flux.

In 1970, he presented with colleagues on a method to stain chromosomes in such a way that they show specific band pattern. In the same year he was elected a member of the Leopoldina.

In 1973 he received the Schleiden Medal of the Leopoldina. In 1979 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Biology for his findings on the protein metabolism and the nucleic acids, for microscopy in the UV range, for the method used to identify specific areas of individual chromosomes. The latter was a new tool in evolutionary research. In 1988 he was awarded the William Allan Award.

Publications

• For knowledge of the optics of white brine; III. The optical conditions in coagulation; In: Colloid & Polymer Science; 1933
• Pressure filtration of Thymonucleinsäure; In: Biochemical Journal, Volume 270, 1934
• Methods for physical analysis of the cell structure; In: Progress of Zoology; 1934
• Molcular size and shape of Thymonucleic Acid; with Signer and Hammersten; In: Nature; 141, 1938, p 122
• Nucleic acid metabolism of the chromosomes in relation to gene reproduction; In: Nature; 142, 1938, pp. 294-295
• The localization of the adenylic acids in striated muscle - fibers; 1942
• Studies on protein metabolism in the cells of epithelial Tumours; 1942
• Cell growth and cell function. Norton, New York 1950
• Cytochemical aspects of the problem- of Tumour growth. The morphological precursor of cancer. In: Proceedings Intern. Conf. Univ. Perugia; 1961
• Caspersson T. and Lomakka Gösta: Scanning microscopy techniques for high resolution quantitative cytochemistry In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 97/1962, pp. 449-463.
• Carlson Leon, Caspersson T., Foley GE, Kudynowski Jan, Lomakka Gösta, E. Simonsson, Soren L.: The application of quantitative cytochemical techniques to the study of individual mammalian chromosomes. In: Experimental Cell Research. 31/1963, pp. 589-594.
• Gert Auer, E. Eriksson, E. Azavedo, Caspersson T., Wallgren A. Prognostic Significance of nuclear DNA content in mammary adenocarcinomas in humans. In: Cancer Research. 44/1984, pp. 394-396.
• History of the development of cytophotometry from 1935 to the present. In: Analytical and Quantitative Cytology and Histology. 9/1987, pp. 2-6.