2010/01/21 by J. Navarro González, Monte S. Willis · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Metabolism and Genetic Disorders #Mitochondrial Function and Pathology #Amino Acid Enzymes and Metabolism
paper · pdf · doi:10.1309/lm62lvv5oslujoqf
openalex publication_date 2010/01/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Dr. Asbjörn Følling, a Norwegian biochemist and physician, first published the description of phenylketonuria (PKU) as a cause of mental retardation in 1934.1 Moreover, this study reported a laboratory test to confirm this metabolic disease, which was later determined to be an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder. Subsequent work by other investigators would determine that diet modification would drastically improve the outcome and prevent the onset of mental retardation. The discovery of PKU was a fundamentally important discovery for the fields of biochemistry, genetics, metabolism, and medicine. Born Ivar Asbjörn Følling on August 23, 1888, he was raised on a farm in northern Norway. He was the youngest of five children.4,5 The farm was located eight miles from the nearest town of Steinkjer and 50 miles from the Trondheim. Starting at the age of five, he recalled spending much of his childhood working.6 While summers were spent working on the farm, he was allowed to attend school during the winter, where classes were held in a one-room school house two miles away, every other day.6 After graduating in the ninth grade, he did not return to full-time work on the farm as most of the other students did, he instead expressed an interest in continuing his education. With his family’s support, he moved to Trondheim to live with his older sister and complete high school. He subsequently attended the Technical College of Norway in Trondheim, majoring in chemical engineering.4,7 He went on to study medicine in Oslo, paying his way through small loans and by teaching chemistry at the dental college.4,7 He completed his medical training in 1922 and began work at the University Hospital, while continuing to teach and do research at the dental college. Upon receiving a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in 1928 to study metabolic diseases in the United States, he studied at Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Mayo.4,7 He returned to work in Norway in 1929, and in 1930 concentrated his studies on metabolism and physiology in Colorado with Dr. Lawrence Henderson, a biochemist and physicist from Harvard. In 1934, Dr. Følling became professor of physiology and biochemistry at the Oslo veterinary college as a researcher and instructor.4,7