Nils-Åke Hillarp

Nils-Åke Hillarp (4 July 1916 – 17 March 1965) was a Swedish scientist and a prominent force in research on the brain's monoamines.

Biography Hillarp was the son of merchant Nils Bengtsson and Hulda, former Johansson, and the brother of Rut Hillarp, a novelist. He became Doctor of Medical Science (equivalent to a Ph.D.) in 1946. They had based their opinion on reports published by Carlsson and co-workers in 1957–1958. However, Carlsson, Falck and Hillarp published a study in 1962, which was based on the Falck-Hillarp fluorescence method on the cellular location of noradrenaline and dopamine in the brain, showing that noradrenaline is located in nerve cells (neurons) and functions as a transmitter. However, they could not ultimately define the cell type that harbors dopamine and were thus not able to state with certainty that dopamine is a transmitter. Obviously, if Carlsson had discovered this in 1957–1958, it would have been referred to and extensively discussed in the Carlsson-Falck-Hillarp publication in 1962. Both Hillarp, at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Falck, at the Medical Faculty, University of Lund, had several research assistants, who studied various aspects of transmitters, using the Falck-Hillarp fluorescence method, and it was not long before these two groups had established that dopamine is, indeed, a transmitter. They did not acknowledge the discovery of Katherine Montagu according to Hornywiczs in his L-Dopa paper.

Hillarp and Falck's work was completed in 1961, published in 1962 and was trailblazing in its field.