Björn Vennström

{{Short description|Swedish molecular biologist}}

Björn Vennström (born 1948) is a Swedish molecular biologist. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 at Uppsala University with a thesis on RNA and in 1993, was appointed Professor of Developmental Biology at the Karolinska Institute. He is also a professor of molecular biology at the same institution.{{cite web | title = Björn Vennström | url = http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=42463&a=26202&l=en | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130418074029/http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=42463&a=26202&l=en | url-status = dead | archive-date = 18 April 2013 | publisher = Karolinska Institutet | access-date = 4 October 2012 }} He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,{{cite web | title=Members | url = http://www.kva.se/en/contact/Kontakt-sida/?personId=229 | publisher = Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | access-date = 4 October 2012}} was awarded the Göran Gustafsson Prize in 1991,{{cite web | title = Göran Gustafssons Prize Winners | url = http://www.gustafssonsstiftelse.se/kva/tidigare.html | publisher = Göran Gustafssons Stiftelse | access-date = 4 October 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120804074015/http://www.gustafssonsstiftelse.se/kva/tidigare.html | archive-date = 4 August 2012 }} has served on the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine from 2001 to 2006, and is the Chairman of the Nobel Assembly.{{cite web | title = The Nobel Committee | url = http://www.nobelprizemedicine.org/?page_id=326 | publisher = The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet | access-date = 4 October 2012}}

While at the EMBL in Heidelberg he cloned the c-erbA gene in 1984{{cite journal |vauthors=Spurr NK, Solomon E, Jansson M, Sheer D, Goodfellow PN, Bodmer WF, Vennström B | title = Chromosomal localisation of the human homologues to the oncogenes erbA and B | journal = EMBO J. | volume = 3 | issue = 1 | pages = 159–63 | year = 1984 | pmid = 6323162 | doi = 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb01777.x| pmc = 557313}} and demonstrated in 1986 that the c-erbA gene encodes a high affinity thyroid hormone receptor.{{cite journal |vauthors=Sap J, Muñoz A, Damm K, Goldberg Y, Ghysdael J, Leutz A, Beug H, Vennström B | title = The c-erb-A protein is a high-affinity receptor for thyroid hormone | journal = Nature | volume = 324 | issue = 6098 | pages = 635–40 | year = 1986 | pmid = 2879242 | doi = 10.1038/324635a0 | s2cid = 4353175 }}