Eva Engvall - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Eva Engvall, born 1940, is one of the scientists who invented ELISA

ELISA

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay , is a popular format of a "wet-lab" type analytic biochemistry assay that uses one sub-type of heterogeneous, solid-phase enzyme immunoassay to detect the presence of a substance in a liquid sample."Wet lab" analytic biochemistry assays involves detection of an...

in 1971.

Vita

Dr. Engvall earned her Ph.D. from the University of Stockholm in 1975. Her postdoctoral work was done at the University of Helsinki

University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...

and City of Hope National Medical Center in California, where she was subsequently appointed to staff. In 1979, Dr. Engvall was recruited to Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California (then called La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation). For 1993-1996, Dr. Engvall held joint appointments at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and as Chairperson of the Department of Developmental Biology at Stockholm University

Stockholm University

Stockholm University is a state university in Stockholm, Sweden. It has over 28,000 students at four faculties, making it one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is also frequently regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world...

. Dr. Engvall received an honorary degree in Medicine from the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

in November 1994.

Research

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA

ELISA

) uses antibodies to detect proteins and other different immunogens. The ELISA technique was conceptualized and developed by two Swedish scientists: Peter Perlmann (principal investigator) and Eva Engvall at Stockholm University

Stockholm University

. Engvall and Perlmann published their first paper on ELISA

ELISA

in 1971 and demonstrated its quantitative value using alkaline phosphatase

Alkaline phosphatase

Alkaline phosphatase is a hydrolase enzyme responsible for removing phosphate groups from many types of molecules, including nucleotides, proteins, and alkaloids. The process of removing the phosphate group is called dephosphorylation...

as the reporter. Perlmann’s further research included cytotoxicity

Cytotoxicity

Cytotoxicity is the quality of being toxic to cells. Examples of toxic agents are a chemical substance, an immune cell or some types of venom .-Cell physiology:...

of human lymphocytes and immunogen selection and epitope mapping for malaria vaccine

Malaria vaccine

Malaria vaccines are an area of intensive research. However, there is no effective vaccine that has been introduced into clinical practice.The global burden of P. falciparum malaria increased through the 1990s due to drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes; this is illustrated...

development.

Peter Perlman died in 2005, but Eva Engvall continued her track as research scientist. Engvall’s group applied the ELISA

ELISA

measurement tool to parasitology [e.g., malaria and trichinosis

Trichinosis

Trichinosis, also called trichinellosis, or trichiniasis, is a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork or wild game infected with the larvae of a species of roundworm Trichinella spiralis, commonly called the trichina worm. There are eight Trichinella species; five are...

], microbiology, and oncology

Oncology

Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...

. Engvall then focused her scientific interests on the biochemistry of tissues, e.g., fibronectin

Fibronectin

Fibronectin is a high-molecular weight glycoprotein of the extracellular matrix that binds to membrane-spanning receptor proteins called integrins. In addition to integrins, fibronectin also binds extracellular matrix components such as collagen, fibrin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans...

, laminin

Laminin

Laminins are major proteins in the basal lamina , a protein network foundation for most cells and organs...

, integrins, and muscular dystrophies at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. Engvall’s laboratory also tested the use of differentiation factors for muscle regeneration and myogenic

Myogenic

Myogenic contraction refers to a contraction initiated by the myocyte cell itself instead of an outside occurrence or stimulus such as nerve innervation.- Unstable Membrane Potentials :...

cells from nonmuscle tissues for muscle cell replacement.

The award

Since its invention ELISA

ELISA

now has a staggering number of analytical and clinical applications. The number of ELISA

ELISA

assay for routine patient care today are astronomical. There's not a modern clinical laboratory that doesn't use the ELISA

ELISA

or one of its descendants. Perlmann and Engvall were honored for their invention when they received the German scientific award of the "Biochemische Analytik" in 1976, 5 years after they had published their first papers.

Vita

Research

The award

See also