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Arne Tiselius
1902–1971 · Sweden · Born 1900–1939
Nobel Chemistry 1948
Swedish biochemist who turned electrophoresis into a precise analytical method and used it to fractionate the proteins of blood serum.
Nobel-winning work
Tiselius perfected moving-boundary electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, building an optical apparatus that separated charged molecules by their migration in an electric field. Applying it to blood serum, he resolved it into albumin and the alpha, beta and gamma globulins, revealing the complex nature of serum proteins.
Fields
Related topics
Ion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis
Ion chromatography separates by ion-exchange retention; capillary electrophoresis separates by electrophoretic mobility in an electric field.
Protein structure and function
A protein is a sequence that folds into a shape; its surface and flexibility help determine what it can bind or catalyse.