Founder of BMC - Karl-Johan Öbrink

Karl Johan Öbrink was born in 1918 in Tierp, in 1938 he became a student at Uppsala University and enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine, which he remained faithful to throughout his active life. He died in 1998.

Karl Johan Öbrink belonged to the first generation of researchers who were drawn to the eminent medical chemist and physiology professor Torsten Teorell. Öbrink continued Teorell's gastric juice research and he wrote a thesis in 1948 on how the secretion of gastric juice can be regulated. He continued this field of research together with younger colleagues, and the experiments with isolated gastric glands, which began in the early 1970s, led to an internationally widely used method in the development of new drugs for gastric ulcers.

Karl Johan Öbrink's interest in research organizational issues and his leadership ability linked him early into the administration of the department and the faculty. Öbrink was given a really big mission regard areas located to BMC. He was responsible for the implementation of the construction of BMC during the 1960s and 1970s.

The preclinical research fields within the Facultu of Medicine's were located to BMC. In Addition, the newly formed Faculty of Pharmacy and the Swedish University of Argicultural Sciences' of Veterinary Medicin, relocated from Stockholm to BMC. Öbrink also served as BMC's first director until his retriement in 1984.

In recognition of the efforts made by BMC, Karl Johan Öbrink was awarded an honorary doctorate at both the Faculty of Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine.