[Lorentz Eldjarn--a catalyst for chemistry in Norwegian medicine]

Lorentz Eldjarn, MD (born 1920) was professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Oslo. He modernised clinical chemistry both nationally and internationally. He introduced both quality control and mass spectrometry in clinical chemistry. In the 1950s he studied the radioprotective compound cystamine and showed that it forms mixed disulfides with protein SH groups. In part, this explains its radioprotective effect. In 1961, he founded the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Oslo, where most of the Norwegian clinical chemists were trained in the following years. His introduction of mass spectrometry as an analytical tool in clinical chemistry led to the detection of three new errors of metabolism in his institute: methylmalonic aciduria, beta-hydroxyisovaleric aciduria, and pyroglutamic aciduria. In 1975, he was awarded the "Distinguished Clinical Chemist Award" of the International Association of Clinical Chemists, and in 1976 the Scandinavian Jahre research prize. After he resigned from his university position in 1978, he has continued his work to develop stable standard sera for clinical chemistry.