Erik Jorpes
| Erik Jorpes | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 15, 1894 Kökar, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Died | July 10, 1973 (aged 78) , Sweden |
| Residence | Sweden |
| Nationality |
Finnish (1894–1923) Swedish (1923-) |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | Karolinska Institute |
| Alma mater | University of Helsinki, Karolinska Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | Einar Hammarsten |
| Known for | Heparin |
| Notable awards | Alvarengas pris (1932) KTH Great Prize (1950) Berzelius Medal (1961) Anders Jahres medicinska pris (1963) |
Johan Erik Jorpes (born Johansson, 15 July 1894 – 10 July 1973) was a Finnish-born Swedish physician and biochemist. He identified the chemical structure of heparin and developed its clinical applications. Jorpes was the professor of medical chemistry in the Karolinska Institute in in 1946–1963.
Erik Jorpes was born as Johan Erik Johansson to a poor fisherman's family in the village of Överboda in Kökar, Åland Islands. The family lived in a house called Jorpes, which he later adopted as his last name to replace the patronyme Johansson. After the primary school, his parents send the talented kid to high school in Turku. Other students of the Swedish-language Svenska klassiska lyceum came mostly from wealthy upper-class families, Jorpes was bullied of his social status and dialect. As a result, Jorpes got interested in socialist ideas in the early 1910s. He joined the local Social Democratic student organization and wrote marxist articles to the newspaper Arbetaren.
Jorpes graduated in 1914 and entered the University of Helsinki to become a doctor, although his parents wished him a priest. Jorpes finished his medical studies in 30 January 1918, just a few days after the outbreak of the Finnish Civil War. Jorpes did not support the idea of an armed revolution, but joined the Red Guards medical staff as he saw it was his duty to help the wounded. After the Battle of Tampere on 6 April, tens of thousands of Red refugees fled from the western parts of Red Finland. Jorpes and his patients were evacuated from Turku to the eastern Finnish town of Vyborg. They were soon transported to Soviet Russia, and finally Jorpes ended up working as a doctor in the Buy refugee camp, set for the Finnish Reds in the Kostroma Governorate. In August 1918, Jorpes attended the founding congress of the exile Communist Party of Finland in Moscow.
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