Ivar Asbjørn Følling (23 August 1888 – 24 January 1973) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and biochemist. He first described the disease commonly known as Følling's disease or

phenylketonuria Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn error of metabolism that results in decreased metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine. Untreated PKU can lead to intellectual disability, seizures, behavioral problems, and mental disorders. It may also re ...

(

PKU Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn error of metabolism that results in decreased metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine. Untreated PKU can lead to intellectual disability, seizures, behavioral problems, and mental disorders. It may also resu ...

Career

He was born at Kvam,

Steinkjer Steinkjer is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Steinkjer which is located on the inner part of the Trondheimsfjord. The town is also th ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

, Norway. Følling studied chemistry at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

and graduated in 1916. He then went to the University of Kristiania (now

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

), graduating in medicine in 1922. He received his cand.med. in 1929 after doing postgraduate work in Norway and abroad in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

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and the U.S. Starting in 1932, Følling occupied a series of medical posts in Oslo, culminating in his being Professor of Biochemistry and Physician-in-Chief at the central laboratory at the Norwegian national research hospital

Oslo University Hospital Oslo University Hospital ( no, Oslo universitetssykehus; OUS) is a university hospital in Oslo, Norway. With over 24,000 employees it is the largest hospital organization in Europe. It is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of the University ...

. Følling was a professor of biochemistry at the University of Oslo for more than 30 years. He retired in 1958.

Discovery

In 1934 at Oslo University Hospital, Følling saw a young woman named Borgny Egeland. She had two children, Liv and Dag, who had been normal at birth but subsequently developed mental retardation. When Dag was about a year old, the mother noticed a strong smell to his urine. Følling obtained urine samples from the children and, after many tests, he found that the substance causing the odor in the urine was phenylpyruvic acid. The children, he concluded, had excess phenylpyruvic acid in the urine, the condition which came to be called

(PKU). This abnormal condition reflects an inability to break down the

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

phenylalanine due to an hereditary deficiency of the necessary

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

which is called

phenylalanine hydroxylase Phenylalanine hydroxylase. (PAH) () is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydroxylation of the aromatic side-chain of phenylalanine to generate tyrosine. PAH is one of three members of the biopterin-dependent aromatic amino acid hydroxylases, a class ...

Perspective

Føllings discovery provided the basis for the so-called metabolic screening of newborns. Today a screening blood test for PKU is done on newborns to detect the disease. With a special diet low in phenylalanine, PKU newborns can grow and develop into normal children and adults. Følling's work was too late to save Liv and Dag from severe progressive

mental retardation Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation, Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signifi ...

(and in Dag's case, death) but it has saved thousands of children since then. It has been said that: "Følling is by many considered the most important medical scientist not to receive the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine".

Honors

* Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research -1949 *Knight 1st Grade of Order of St. Olav - 1958 *Anders Jahre Award for Medical Research- 1960 *Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Foundation Awards - 1962 *

Gunnerus Medal The Gunnerus Medal ( no, Gunnerusmedaljen) is a medal awarded by the learned society Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. It was inaugurated in 1927, and named after Johan Ernst Gunnerus, founder of the learned society. Members of the l ...

- 1966

References

External links

Great Norwegians
(In Norwegian)
The first evidence of links between brain development and metabolism.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Folling, Ivar Asbjorn 1888 births 1973 deaths People from Steinkjer Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni University of Oslo alumni University of Oslo faculty Oslo University Hospital people Norwegian biochemists Norwegian geneticists Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal 20th-century Norwegian physicians Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences