From cell to society
2015
KI’S NEW PROFESSORS ON THEIR RESEARCH
MEET THE PRIZEWINNERS
From cell to society
2015
Contents
FOREWORD
Anders Hamsten Vice-Chancellor 4
PROFESSORS
Jir̀´í Bártek Professor of Cancer Biology 6
Karin Broberg Professor of Environmental Medicine specialising in Genetics and Epigenetics
7
Cynthia Bulik Professor of Epidemiology specialising in Eating Disorders
8
Christina Dalman Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology
9
Óscar Fernández-Capetillo Professor of Cancer Therapy
10
Gert Helgesson Professor of Medical Ethics
11
Sten Eirik Waelgaard Jacobsen Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
12
Bertrand Joseph Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology specialising in Cell Death 13
Lisa Juntti-Berggren Professor of Experimental Medicine
14
Olli Kallioniemi Professor of Molecular Precision Medicine
15
Eva Kosek Professor of Clinical Pain Research specialising in Musculoskeletal Pain
16
Lars Larsson Professor of Neurophysiology specialising in Muscular Physiology
17
Janne Lehtiö Professor of Medical Proteomics
18
Stig Linder Professor of Molecular Cancer Pharmacology 19
Sten Linnarsson Professor of Molecular System Biology specialising in Transcriptomics 20
Karin Loré Professor of Vaccination Immunology specialising in Innate Immunity 21
Lena Nilsson-Wikmar Professor of Physiotherapy specialising in Education
22
Molly M Stevens Professor of Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine 23
Patrick Sullivan Professor of Psychiatric Genetics 24
Carol Tishelman Professor of Innovative Care
25
Per Tornvall Professor of Cardiology 26
Per Uhlén Professor of Dynamic Imaging of Intracellular Signalling
27
Yvonne Wengström Professor of Nursing
28
Agneta Åkesson Professor of Epidemiology specialising in Nutrition and Toxicology
29
ADJUNCT PROFESSORS
Barbro Dahlén 32
Solvig Ekblad 32
Mikael Forsman 33
Eva Hurt-Camejo
33
Ralph Knöll 34
Nina Lundberg
34
Jonas Mattsson 35
Ali Mirazimi 35
Magnus Nord 36
Ann Nordgren 36
Lennart Nordström
37
Claes Norring 37
Håkan Wallén
38
VISITING PROFESSORS
Lauri Aaltonen 39
Patrick Cramer 39
Ann-Charlotte Granholm 40
Anu Kantele 40
Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu 41
Ilona Koupil 41
Matti Lehtinen 42
Hans Morten Lossius 42
Karl-Johan Malmberg 43
Anders Persson 43
Thomas Sakmar 44
Timo Sorsa 44
Peter Svensson
45
FOREIGN ADJUNCT PROFESSORS
48
PRIZES AND AWARDS
The Grand Silver Medal 50
The Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize 52
The Eric K Fernström Prize 52
The Håkan Mogren Prize 53
The Karolinska Institutet Ethics Prize 53
Karolinska Institutet’s Pedagogical Prize 54
The Malin and Lennart Philipson Prize 54
Lennart Nilsson Award 55
The Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg Prize 56
The installation ceremony, when Karolinska Institutet celebrates its newly
appointed professors, is one of the grandest academic ceremonies of the year.
Full of joy, pride and expectations, I – as Vice-Chancellor – would like to congratulate all our new professors as they step into the highest academic office at
one of the world’s leading medical universities at a time when huge investments
are being pumped into the life sciences and into Karolinska Institutet itself.
A great deal will be expected of you. You are key people who, with the solid
platform of your professorships under you, will now be taking even greater
responsibility for your research fields, for KI’s education programmes and for
nurturing upcoming generations of researchers and teachers. Your job will be to
help establish new creative environments and to encourage a spirit of originality
and devotion in those working under and with you. Moreover, society and
research financiers will be expecting your discoveries to produce innovative
techniques that can be swiftly put to the service of medicine.
Karolinska Institutet has very high ambitions for its research. We aim at
scientific breakthroughs that change ideas about normal and morbid life
processes and that improve human health. We have the same expectations
of excellence on our education programmes too. Here, I expect you to actively
contribute your knowledge and to stand up as important exemplars for our
students.
This twentieth issue of From Cell to Society presents all our new professors,
visiting professors, adjunct professors and foreign adjunct professors. It also
introduces those who have won prizes for their contributions to the university
and to medical research and teaching. Our special jubilee medal, the Grand
Silver Medal – established to commemorate our second centenary in 2010 – is
awarded for exceptional services to Karolinska Institutet.
Many challenges and wonderful new opportunities await our new professors.
I wish you all the best of luck and success in your new office.
Stockholm, October 2015
Anders Hamsten
Vice-Chancellor Karolinska Institutet
Photo: Ylva Sundgren.
Foreword
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
PROFESSORS
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
5
PROFESSOR S
He wants to find the vulnerability
Jiří Bártek researches the checkpoint systems that monitor cell division in our bodies. These systems are there
to ensure that division occurs at the correct pace and to check the quality of DNA replication. Flaws in these
controls can lead to cancer and affect ageing and immunity.
The continual division of cells in our bodies is pre-conditional
to life; however, the process is a complex and delicate one and
subject to serious error. Professor Bártek’s research concerns
the different control systems that the cell has at its disposal for
avoiding such damage.
“One aspect is checking how often the cells divide,” says Professor Jiří Bártek. “If they start to divide at an uncontrolled rate it
causes a cancer. Another aspect is checking the genome quality on
cell division. When DNA is replicated, it’s important for the copy
to be as close as possible to the original. Replication damage to
DNA can lead to disease, including cancer. How quickly we age
and how well our immune system works is partly the outcome of
how well our DNA can avoid replication damage.”
Professor Bártek hopes that his research will help science to
discover new targets for cancer therapies, and his group has
recently published one such proposal.
“When we learn more about what distinguishes cancer cells
from normal cells, we’ll increase our chances of discovering
mechanisms that the cancer cells are particularly dependent on,”
he says. “We’ll then have found a vulnerability in the cancer, and
a point of attack for treatment.”
Another research line for Professor Bártek is biomarkers as
clinical tools in the choice of cancer therapy.
“It’s important for cancer patients to be given the right treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis,” he explains. “But there’s
often a whole gamut of therapies, some of which are not as good
for the patients. Tests able to predict which one will be effective
are therefore valuable.”
Jirř í Bártek
Professor of Cancer Biology at the Department of
Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Jiří Bártek was born in Mähren in the then Czechoslovakia in 1953.
He studied medicine at Palacky University in 1979, graduating
with his PhD from the Institute of Molecular Genetics at the Czech
Academy of Sciences in 1983. He researched at the Institute of
Clinical and Experimental Oncology in Brno in 1984–1991, and at
the Institute of Haematology in Prague in 1991–1992.
6
Since 1992 Professor Bártek has been researching at the Danish
Cancer Society, where he was made head of the Genome Integrity
Unit in 2011. From 2005 to 2014 he was director of a Danish centre
of excellence.
Jiří Bártek was offered a professorship of cancer biology at
Karolinska Institutet on 1 April 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
Metals are good models
Our sensitivity to harmful substances is determined by our genes. But such substances can also reprogram our DNA,
so called epigenetic changes, in response to the environment. Professor Broberg researches these links between
heredity and environment.
Karin Broberg
Professor of Environmental Medicine specialising
in Genetics and Epigenetics at the Institute of
Environmental Medicine
Karin Broberg was born in Uppsala in 1973 and graduated with
a degree in biology from Lund University in 1996. She went on
to earn her PhD in experimental clinical genetics in 2001 and
continued to research the field of environmental medicine at Lund
University until 2013. Broberg became a docent in 2008 and group
leader in 2010.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
exhibit genetic variants that enhance their tolerance to the high
levels of arsenic in their drinking water. The findings were published
in the spring of 2015 and widely disseminated and commented.
The group has also shown that early exposure to harmful
substances has an epigenetic effect that potentially impacts on
health much later in life.
“Epigenetics is a relatively new and extremely exciting field.
It helps us understand how environmental factors can have such
a sudden impact on biology and why there can be such a delay
between exposure and an increased risk of disease,” she says.
Photo: Private.
Karin Broberg researches on the links between genetics and harmful substances in our environment in terms of how these substances
affect our DNA and how our DNA affects our sensitivity to the
substances.
“The difference between people who are especially vulnerable
to environmental factors and those who are especially tolerant is
huge,” says Professor Broberg. “If we’re to be able to judge risks
correctly and set suitable threshold limits for different substances,
for instance, we have to know more about these differences.”
To a large extent, her research has focused on toxic metals
and semi-metals such as arsenic, but her aim is to add to general
knowledge in the field.
“Metals are a good model for understanding how toxic substances
affect our DNA. For one thing, they’re relatively easy to track
through the body. The metabolism of organic compounds is much
more complicated.”
Professor Broberg and her colleagues have discovered what is to
date the only known genetic adaptation in humans to hazardous
environments: the indigenous peoples of northern Argentina
Since 2011 Professor Broberg has also been researching at the
Institute of Environmental Medicine at KI, initially one day a week
and then full-time from 2013.
Karin Broberg was appointed professor of environmental medicine specialising in genetics and epigenetics at Karolinska Institutet
on 1 May 2015.
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PROFESSOR S
Understanding the biology
is the first step
Cynthia Bulik researches eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.
Her aim is to identify the genetic and environmental risk factors, understand the biology of the diseases, and contribute
to the development of more efficacious treatments.
Cynthia Bulik has been researching eating disorders since the
1980s, and has spent the past decade focusing on their genetic
causes.
“We want to learn which genes contribute to the risk of anorexia
and how they operate,” she says. “To do this, we are leading large
international consortia, including the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics
Initiative (ANGI), with around 26,000 participants. We’re hoping
to get the first results at the end of 2016.”
Professor Bulik also researches treatments for eating disorders,
which she says need improvement, particularly for anorexia.
“In my clinical research we have developed a couple-based model
in which patients attend therapy with their partners. Partners
often desperately want to help, but they don’t know how, and this
causes frustration. The couple approach gives the patients and
their partners a chance to work together towards recovery. And
the results really do look promising.”
In the more distant future, Professor Bulik hopes her genetic
research will lead to the development of new medications to treat
eating disorders.
“All drugs used today in the treatment of anorexia are borrowed
from other conditions, and none of them work well for our
patients. Understanding the biology of anorexia is the first step
towards developing effective drugs that target the root causes
of the illness.”
One of the main advantages of working at KI that Professor
Bulik cites is the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines.
“There are also fantastic opportunities to conduct registrybased research in Sweden,” she says.
Cynthia Bulik
Professor of Epidemiology specialising in Eating
Disorders at the Department of Medical Epidemiology
and Biostatistics
Cynthia Bulik was born in 1960 in Pittsburgh, USA. She graduated
with a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California,
Berkeley in 1988. After postdoc research in Pittsburgh, she conducted research at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand from
1991 to 1996. From 1996 to 2003 she conducted research at the
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. In 2003
8
she became the USA’s first endowed professor of eating disorders,
a position she holds at the University of North Carolina, where she
founded the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders.
Cynthia Bulik was offered a professorship in epidemiology
specialising in eating disorders at Karolinska Institutet starting on
1 November 2014.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
Association with many risk factors
Schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis cause terrible human suffering at a considerable cost to the health services.
Professor Christina Dalman’s work involves identifying the risk factors in order to understand how these conditions
develop with a view to improving methods of therapy and prevention.
Christina Dalman researches into the risk factors of serious psychiatric conditions, particularly schizophrenia and autism.
“In my thesis, I studied the link between schizophrenia and complications during pregnancy, such as low birth-weight,” she says.
“Since then, I’ve gradually been including other factors.”
By combining blood samples from pregnant women and neonates with registry data from a wide variety of sources, Professor
Dalman has built up over the years a better picture of risk factors
for schizophrenia, both biological – such as complications during
pregnancy and birth, infections and inflammation in infancy and
advanced age of the father – and socioeconomic – such as social
vulnerability, trauma (such as a death in the family), migration,
urban upbringing and cannabis use.
“The next step for us is to understand how these factors operate,”
she says, “We’ve started a project with geneticists at John Hopkins,
USA, and epigeneticists in Bristol, UK. Some of my team have also
started to study the association with other factor types, such as
nutrients and hormones.”
Professor Dalman herself will now be extending her research to
diagnoses other than schizophrenia.
“Conditions such as schizophrenia and autism are obviously
related, and when we examine the risk factors for the autism
spectrum we see a picture that very much resembles that we’ve
seen for schizophrenia. We’ll also be looking at the risk factors of
bipolarism.”
Christina Dalman
Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the
Department of Public Health Science
Christina Dalman was born in Gävle in 1956 and studied medicine
at Uppsala University and KI, graduating in 1985 and obtaining
her licence to practice in 1990. Since 1997 she has been working
at what is now the Centre for Epidemiology and Community
Medicine (CES), currently as the director of the mental health unit.
She received her PhD in 2001 and became a docent at Karolinska
Institutet in 2010.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
As a clinician, Dalman became a consultant in community
medicine specialising in psychiatry in 1999.
Christina Dalman was appointed professor of psychiatric
epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the
position of senior physician at Stockholm Health Care Services
starting on 1 November 2014.
9
PROFESSOR S
The cell’s toolbox
Damaged DNA plays a vital part in both cancer and ageing. A deeper knowledge of how such damage occurs
and how cells try to neutralise it can give rise to new treatments for cancer and to a healthier old age.
This is Professor Óscar Fernández-Capetillo’s objective.
Damage to our DNA is responsible for both cancer and ageing.
But what causes the damage and what does the body do to neutralise it? This is what Professor Óscar Fernández-Capetillo hopes to
find out.
“I’ve been concentrating on replicative damage, which is to say
the kind of damage that occurs when DNA copies itself during cell
division,” he says.
The cell has a system, a toolbox for finding and fixing such
faults. By studying and manipulating these tools, Professor
Fernández-Capetillo has added to the knowledge of replicative
damage. His research group in Madrid was the first in the world
to empirically show that a higher degree of replicative damage
speeds up the ageing process. The group discovered that most of
the damage originated in the fetal stage, despite symptoms not
showing through until much later.
Professor Fernández-Capetillo’s work has also produced a drug
candidate for cancer that pharmaceutical company Merck is now
continuing to develop.
“Since cancer cells are much more active than other cells, they are
also more dependent on tools for avoiding replicative damage.
The inhibition of these tools therefore compromises the tumour.
To this end we have found a substance that we have proved to be
toxic to tumours. Clinical studies are now being prepared.”
Meanwhile, Professor Fernández-Capetillo continues to search
for other ways to strike at cancer and to research into ageing.
“We recently showed that premature ageing in a mouse model
can be offset by increasing the cell’s production of nucleotides,
which are the building blocks of DNA,” he says.
Óscar Fernández-Capetillo
Professor of Cancer Therapy at the Department of
Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Óscar Fernández-Capetillo was born in 1974 in Bilbao, Spain. He
earned his PhD in biochemistry from the University of the Basque
Country, Leioa, Spain, in 2001 and did his postdoc research at the
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA, between 2001 and 2004.
Since 2005, Professor Fernández-Capetillo has been leading a
research group at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in
Madrid, Spain. This he will continue to do on a part-time basis.
10
In 2014, he was included in the 40-under-40 list from the journal
Cell, which selected 40 of the most prominent worldwide scientists
under 40 years of age.
Óscar Fernández-Capetillo was offered a professorship in cancer
therapy at Karolinska Institutet starting on 1 January 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
Ethics becoming more complex
Gert Helgesson researches scientific and medical ethics. The issues he interrogates concern everything from
how researchers present their data to the difficult decisions doctors must make on life and death.
As a professor of medical ethics, Gert Helgesson researches in a
dual field, one part of which concerns research ethics and departures from accepted scientific practice.
“One sometimes sees pure fraud, with scientists fabricating
data,” says Professor Helgesson. “But in our research and our
training of the next generation of researchers, it is the more
complex ethical issues that are of interest. How may researchers
handle and package their results? What aberrant data can be overlooked in the statistical analysis – and why?”
One of Professor Helgesson’s interests is the ethics of scientific
publication, such as who is to be included on the list of authors of
a scientific paper.
“Nothing’s so important for your academic career as the articles
you’ve co-written. It can therefore be tempting to fudge the truth
about your own contributions.”
The other part of Professor Helgesson’s research concerns ethics
in medicine, where staff are confronted with difficult decisions
about life-sustaining interventions or palliative care, about prioritising limited resources, and about power and influence.
“An important change in recent decades is the shift towards a
patient or person-centred approach,” he says. “It’s an agreeable
trend, but it brings ethical complications. Does patient influence
mean that the healthcare services are abdicating their responsibility? How can we handle a clash of objectives, like autonomy and
health? What are the limits of self-determination in psychiatry?
We have recently started up a large research programme on these
interesting questions.”
Gert Helgesson
Professor of Medical Ethics at the Department of
Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics
Gert Helgesson was born in 1965 in Borås. After studying philosophy,
psychology and sociology, he worked as a journalist from 1991 to
1996. In 1997 he returned to his philosophy studies, earning his
PhD from Uppsala University in 2002 with a thesis on the intrinsic
values of microeconomic theory.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
In 2002–2007 Gert Helgesson worked at what became Uppsala
University’s and KI’s joint Centre for Bioethics. He joined LIME at KI
in 2007, becoming docent the following year.
Gert Helgesson was appointed professor of medical ethics at
Karolinska Institutet on 1 May 2015.
11
PROFESSOR S
Normal and abnormal formation
of blood cells
Sten Eirik Waelgaard Jacobsen researches how bone marrow stem cells produce blood cells. His research
involves exploring the mechanisms and regulation of healthy blood formation and the causes of diseases of the
blood, such as leukaemia.
Every second, millions of new blood cells are created by the stem
cells in our bone marrow. A single stem call can both produce all
types of blood cell and replicate itself into new stem cells. Professor
Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen researches into this process.
“The production of blood cells is regulated by the body’s needs,”
he says. “For example, more white blood cells are formed in the
presence of an infection. In the past twenty years we’ve learnt a
great deal about how this regulation works, but there are still gaps
in our knowledge. We know about some of the cells and substances involved, but it’s still unclear how they interact and function.”
An important aspect of Jacobsen’s research is understanding
what malfunction disrupts the formation of blood so that blood
cancer develops. He and his team have the crucial task of identifying the cells that cause leukaemia and the molecular mechanisms
that result in the disease.
“My hope is that what we learn from our research will eventually give rise to leukaemia treatments that are more effective and
less physically intrusive than those currently available,” he says.
“Greater knowledge of the normal blood formation process can
also lead to better treatments for patients with defective blood
formation.”
For the past five years, Professor Jacobsen has been a part-time
visiting professor at KI and has helped to establish the new Centre
for Haematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM). As a newly
appointed full-time professor, he is also looking forward to setting
up collaborations with stem cell researchers in other departments.
Sten Eirik Waelgaard
Jacobsen
Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge,
and the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen was born in Oslo in 1961. He became a
licensed doctor in 1989 and earned his PhD from the University of
Bergen in 1992. In 2000 he became professor of stem cell biology
at Lund University, where he set up a centre of excellence in the life
sciences (the Lund Stem Cell Centre). He was director of the centre
from 2003 to 2007.
12
In 2006 Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen was made professor of stem cell
biology and regenerative medicine at the University of Oxford.
He was also a guest professor at KI from 2010 to 2014.
Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen was offered a professorship in stem cell
biology and regenerative medicine at Karolinska Institutet on
1 October 2014.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
Mechanisms for life and death
are related
Bertrand Joseph researches signals at cellular level that determine if cells are to die or not. His work is relevant for many
diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, in which cells take the wrong decision in this choice between
life and death.
Our bodies have systems for repairing damaged cells so that they
survive, and systems for letting cells die. If these mechanisms dysfunction, disease ensues. Professor Joseph’s work involves looking
into what happens at a molecular level when cells decide between
life and death.
“Our research concerns different kinds of cell, including the
microglial cells in the brain,” says Professor Joseph. “These cells
are very flexible in their function and can both attack unwanted
cells and maintain healthy cells. What we’re trying to do is understand why they sometimes make the wrong decision, such as
when microglia actively help a cancer tumour to grow; or vice
versa, when they attack healthy cells and cause neurodegenerative
diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.”
The more that is learned about these systems, he explains, the
clearer it becomes that the mechanisms for survival and death are
actually quite related.
“Previous, scientists have often taken the presence of certain
proteins to mean that they performed some kind of function,”
he says. “Now we see that enzymes linked to apoptosis are also
involved in the survival signalling. It’s not the protein that matters,
it’s the context.”.
Another process associated with cell survival and death is
autophagia, which is an important cellular digestion mechanism
that allows cells to get rid themselves of defective organelles while
recovering energy and building blocks. Autophagia can also lead
to cell death, however. Professor Joseph and his colleagues have
discovered that the nucleus plays a hitherto unknown and key
part in autophagia.
Bertrand Joseph
Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology specialising in
Cell Death at the Department of Oncology-Pathology
Bertrand Joseph was born in 1972 in Haubourdin, France. He studied the fundamentals of cell biology at Lille University, graduating
in 1995 and receiving his PhD two years later at the same institution.
Professor Joseph did his postdoc research in 1998–2000 at the
Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) at KI, and in 2000–2003
at Stockholm’s Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He returned to
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
the IMM in 2004 and started to assemble his own research group.
He became a docent in the same year, and in 2009 moved with his
group to the department of oncology-pathology.
Bertrand Joseph was appointed professor of molecular cancer
biology specialising on cell death at Karolinska Institutet on 1 May
2015.
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PROFESSOR S
Association to be used for prediction
Lisa Juntti-Berggren’s research on diabetes, especially apolipoprotein CIII, aims to find new drugs for the
prevention and treatment of the disease.
In the early 1990s, Lisa Juntti-Berggren discovered that serum
from patients with type 1 diabetes is harmful to insulin-producing
beta cells; ten years later, she identified the cause: raised levels
of apolipoprotein CIII (apoCIII). This was unexpected, as the
protein, although well-known to science, was associated with
cardiovascular diseases rather than diabetes. Since then, Professor
Juntti-Berggren continued to research the part played by apoCIII
in diabetes.
“Since diabetes patients have raised levels of apoCIII in their
blood, I wanted to see what happens when the concentration of
the protein is lowered before the disease breaks out,” she says.
“This we have tested in an animal model for type 1 diabetes. By
reducing levels of apoCIII when the animals were still healthy
we managed to delay the onset of the disease by the equivalent
of eight human years. We’ve also found that apoCIII is linked
to overweight, insulin sensitivity and the development of type 2
diabetes.”
Professor Juntti-Berggren’s research has produced a general
explanation for the association: raised levels of apoCIII affect
the cells’ ion channels, which leads to morbidly high calcium
concentrations and subsequent cell death. However, the precise
mechanisms behind this process remain to be discovered.
“Many diabetics develop complications in organs like the
kidneys and eyes,” she says. “We can’t predict who will develop
complications and we’ll be looking into whether apoCIII can
be a predictor. If this is found to be the case, we can use it as a
diagnostic tool.”
Lisa Juntti-Berggren
Professor of Experimental Medicine at the Department of
Molecular Medicine and Surgery
Lisa Juntti-Berggren was born in Övertorneå in northern Sweden.
She received a BSc in medical science at Umeå University in 1977
and her medical degree at Uppsala University in 1980, subsequently receiving her licence to practise in 1984. She earned a PhD from
Uppsala University in 1992 and became docent at KI in 1997. She
has also researched at other institutions, such as Boston University
Hospital in the USA.
14
As a clinician, Lisa Juntti-Berggren became a specialist in endocrinology and internal medicine in 1993 and consultant at Karolinska
University Hospital’s endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes clinic
in 2006.
Lisa Juntti-Berggren was appointed professor of experimental
medicine at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position
of senior physician at the Karolinska University Hospital starting on
1 January 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
To put new knowledge quicker
to clinical use
Olli Kallioniemi wants to see today’s great life-science advances put to much swifter clinical use. Both as a
professor and as the new director of SciLifeLab he is interested in new translational collaborations and the
molecular classification of diseases.
Olli Kallioniemi is the new director of SciLifeLab and a recently
appointed professor at KI, who in both his research and his
capacity as leader of a large research organisation wants to find
new forms of collaboration between the worlds of research and
healthcare.
“We have to put new knowledge to clinical use much more
quickly than we do at present,” he says. “That it still takes 15 years
to go from discovery to marketable drug just isn’t good enough.”
Professor Kallioniemi’s own research concerns optimising the
treatment of acute leukaemia, and involves systematically testing a
large number of drugs on samples taken from cancer patients.
“We have 461 cancer drugs in our collection,” he continues. “We
test them all on patient cancer cells in culture. One of the things
we’ve discovered is that a certain type of leukaemia relapse can be
treated with a drug for kidney cancer. This is by far the quickest
way of contributing to clinical benefit – finding new applications
for drugs already out on the market.”
A key aspect of Kallioniemi’s research is ascertaining the
molecular causes of the disease in each individual case. What is
normally regarded as one disease is in fact a heterogeneous group
of diseases, which is why doctors cannot always know in advance
which patients need which drugs. If each molecular variant is
identified, this uncertainty can be eliminated.
For practical reasons, Kallioniemi’s current research group is
still working at FIMM in Helsinki; he is, however, establishing a
new group at KI.
“We’ll work as a single group split into two locations,” he says.
Olli Kallioniemi
Professor of Molecular Precision Medicine
Olli Kallioniemi was born in Karkku, Finland, in 1960. He earned
his medical degree in 1984 and PhD in 1988 at Tampere University. He researched for 11 years in the USA, at UC San Francisco
(1990–1992) and the NIH (1995–2002). From 2002 to 2008 he led a
research group at VTT Technical Research Centre in Turku, Finland.
Kallioniemi founded the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland
(FIMM) at Helsinki University in 2007, since when he has been its
director.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
In the summer of 2015 he was appointed director of SciLifeLab in
Stockholm and Uppsala, and remains director of research at FIMM
on a part-time basis.
Olli Kallioniemi was offered a professorship in molecular precision medicine at Karolinska Institutet starting on 1 July 2015.
15
PROFESSOR S
Chronic pain causes a negative spiral
Chronic pain affects large groups of patients and is very costly in terms of human suffering and medical resources.
Eva Kosek researches the causes of chronic pain in the hope that her work will one day lead to new, more efficacious
treatments.
Eva Kosek researches chronic pain in muscles and joints, studying
diseases such as fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid
arthritis in order to understand how chronic pain conditions arise
and develop.
“Chronic pain isn’t the same as prolonged acute pain,” says Professor Kosek. “Gradual changes take place in the body and brain
that make chronic pain classifiable as a disease in itself, rather
than a symptom. A negative spiral appears in the signal system
between the body and the brain that gradually exacerbates the
pain by amplifying the signals and degrading the filter the brain
uses to dampen them.”
Professor Kosek now wants to find out more about the precise
causes of these changes. New research shows that the glial cells
in the brain are activated by pain, which releases inflammatory
substances. Professor Kosek’s group has shown that fibromyalgia
patients have elevated levels of these inflammatory substances in
their cerebrospinal fluid. To see if there is also a link to activated
glial cells in these patients, the group is progressing to PET scans.
Professor Kosek’s research also includes genetic factors of
significance to chronic pain and the effects of different types of
treatment: drugs, exercise, CBT and surgery.
“Drugs for chronic pain have started to appear in the past few
years, but for most patients they’re still not enough. This is one
reason why it’s important to understand the mechanisms behind
the condition, as it will open doors to the development of new,
more effective treatments.”
Eva Kosek
Professor of Clinical Pain Research specialising in Musculoskeletal Pain at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience
Eva Kosek was born in Prague in the then Czechoslovakia in 1960.
She graduated in medicine from Uppsala in 1986 and earned
her licence to practise in 1989. In 1996 she received her PhD at
KI, where she has continued to do her research. She was made a
docent in 2004.
Professor Kosek also works as a clinician, becoming a specialist
in rehabilitation medicine in 1990 and pain relief in 2001. In 2007,
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she was made consultant at the Stockholm Spine Center, which
also co-finances her professorship.
Eva Kosek was appointed professor of clinical pain research
specialising in musculoskeletal pain at Karolinska Institutet on
1 May 2015.
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PROFESSOR S
Muscular atrophy common in
intensive care
Lars Larsson researches muscle cells and how ageing and disease impair muscle function. He is particularly
interested in a type of muscle paralysis that affects some patients in intensive care and hopes to understand the
underlying mechanisms, improve diagnostics and develop specific treatment methods.
Many intensive care patients on a respirator develop serious muscular atrophy or paralysis of the muscles of the torso and limbs.
The condition causes considerable suffering, increases the risk of
complication and contributes greatly to the cost of healthcare.
Lars Larsson, who researches muscle cells, described the first
patient in Sweden with this specific muscle disease 20 years
ago, and since then has focused his work on the causes of this
muscular atrophy and on improving diagnostics and developing
methods of treatment.
“An estimated 30 to 60 per cent of patients in intensive care and
on a respirator are affected by this muscle disease,” he says, “but
unfortunately many still are not diagnosed correctly.”
Professor Larsson’s research has highlighted the causes of the
atrophy, which is the result of a lack of the motor protein myosin.
One of the most important triggers is the total absence of muscular load, activity and other mechanical influence. This condition,
which is unique to the intensive care situation, activates processes
that cause a critical drop in the muscle cells’ contractile protein.
“Mechanical stimulation of the muscles, by which I mean active
physiotherapy, can therefore offset this atrophy,” he explains.
Professor Larsson’s research group is now working on evaluating
the protective effect on the musculature of different substances
and on passing potential therapies on to clinical trials and, hopefully, to routine care.
Lars Larsson
Professor of Neurophysiology specialising in Muscular Physiology at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
Lars Larsson was born in Stockholm in 1952 and studied medicine
at KI, where he received his PhD in 1978 and his medical degree
in 1982. Three years later he became a docent of and specialist in
clinical neurophysiology.
Between 1997 and 2002, Larsson conducted research in the
USA, where he was the Marie Underhill Noll professor at the Noll
Physiological Research Center, Pennsylvania State University, the
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Center for Development and Health Genetics and the Department
of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Hershey Medical School.
Between 2002 and 2014 he was also professor at Uppsala University.
Lars Larsson was offered a professorship in neurophysiology
specialising in muscular physiology at Karolinska Institutet in
combination with the position of senior physician at the Karolinska
University Hospital starting on 1 September 2014.
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PROFESSOR S
Biomarkers can guide doctors
Janne Lehtiö uses mass spectrometry to study proteomes and their function to understand how proteins change
as cancer develops. One of his objectives is to find reliable biomarkers that can help doctors to choose the most
effective medication for each patient.
Janne Lehtiö conducts research in proteomics – i. e. studies biological networks of proteins.
“Instead of studying a certain protein in detail, we aim to form
an overall picture of the proteome, of all the proteins in a cell, tissue
*or organism,” he explains. “I often compare it to take landscape
images instead of photographing individual trees.”
Professor Lehtiö focuses mainly on cancer and is using proteomics methods to understand why, for instance, a certain drug
works for some patients but not for others.
“Cancer clinics have recently gained access to a new arsenal of
target-seeking drugs,” he says, “the efficacy of which varies widely
between patients diagnosed with same type of cancer. We’re trying
to find biomarkers that can guide doctors in treatment decisions
when selecting the most potent combination of targeted cancer
drugs for their patients. Our research is also focused on understanding the fundamental principles by which the proteome
changes during cancer development.”
As head of the SciLifeLab’s platform for clinical proteomics and
mass spectrometry, an additional important focus in Lehtiös
research is the development of mass spectrometry based methods
– the main tool in proteomics. His group is also active in the new
field of proteogenomics, which integrates genomics and proteomics.
“It’s exciting to be part of founding a new research field,” he
says. “When our group recently discovered 100 previously unknown protein-coding genes in humans, this was how we did it
– by combining genomics and proteomics.”
Janne Lehtiö
Professor of Medical Proteomics at the Department of
Oncology-Pathology
Janne Lehtiö was born in Lieto, Finland, in 1970. He graduated
with a degree in biochemistry from Helsinki University in 1996
and earned his PhD in biotechnology from KTH, Royal Institute of
Technology in 2001. After two years working at biotech research
companies in the US and Denmark, he returned to the academia to
do postdoctoral research at KI between 2003 and 2004.
Janne Lehtiö became head of Karolinska University Hospital’s
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facility for clinical proteomics in 2004, and head of SciLifeLab’s platform for clinical proteomics/mass spectrometry in 2010. In 2009 he
became docent in proteomics.
Janne Lehtiö was appointed professor of medical proteomics at
Karolinska Institutet on 1 June 2015.
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PROFESSOR S
Targeting slowly dividing cells
Stig Linder’s research aims to develop new cancer drugs. Two of his discoveries are currently undergoing phase 1
tests in the USA. A blood test for tumour cell death that his group has developed is used in the development of
drugs and the diagnosis of liver diseases.
Stig Linder
Professor of Molecular Cancer Pharmacology at the
Department of Oncology-Pathology
Stig Linder was born in Ludvika in 1954 and graduated with his
PhD from KI in 1982. He did his postdoc research at Yale University,
USA, in 1982–1983 and became docent at Uppsala University in
1988.
Between 1989 and 2014 professor Linder worked at the Cancer
Research Funds of Radiumhemmet. He became an adjunct
professor at KI in 1999 and was deputy head of department in
2009–2014.
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and a limited metabolic plasticity. Our drug candidate kills nongrowing tumour cells by disrupting their energy metabolism.”
Professor Linder’s group has teamed up with a biotech company
to develop a simple blood test for tumour cell death. The test,
called M30 Apoptosense, is used in clinical studies for the
development of new drugs and has proved a useful marker of
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH). The process of obtaining
FDA approval for M30 Apoptosense as a marker for liver diseases
has commenced.
Photo: Private.
Stig Linder has been an adjunct professor at KI since 1999 and
works in the area of cancer drug research. Clinical phase 1 trials
are currently underway for two of the drug candidates that his
group has discovered.
“We are working with two different areas of cancer treatment,”
he says. “The intended disease area for one of our substances is
multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. The problem with existing drugs of its kind – so called proteasome inhibitors – is that
cancer cells gradually develop resistance to them. Our substance
works along a different principle and would therefore be a valuable addition to the current therapy arsenal.”
The other project is to target slowly proliferating cells in solid
tumours, cells that are resistant to conventional cancer drugs.
“The therapies used today damage rapidly proliferating cancer
cells”, Stig Linder explains. “But there is often a reservoir of cancer
cells that do not divide quickly, and conventional drugs can’t
touch them. These cells have a poor oxygen and nutrient supply
Since 2014, Stig Linder has been professor of pharmacology at
Linköping University. He is also a visiting professor at Tianjin Lung
Cancer Institute, China.
Stig Linder was appointed professor of molecular cancer
pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet on 1 January 2015.
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PROFESSOR S
Single cells have exploded
Single cell analysis enables scientists to do what was once thought impossible: study gene activity in an individual
cell. Sten Linnarsson uses the technique to identify cell types in the brain and to understand the systems that
regulate our cells types in both healthy and cancerous tissue.
The brain’s grey and white matter actually consists of hundreds –
perhaps thousands – of cell types. Nobody yet knows, but Professor Linnarsson intends to find out and has devoted much of his
research to creating the single cell analysis technique needed to
do so. Professor Linnarsson’s research group has been one of the
international leaders in the field.
“When we started, there were maybe just a couple of groups
in the world working on this,” he says. “Since then interest has
gradually grown, to completely explode in just this past year.”
Single cell analysis allows the researchers to study the genes of
an individual cell to understand how it works. Analysing such a
small amount of material has never before been possible. In a recently published study in the scientific journal Science, Professor
Linnarsson and his colleagues were able to show that only a tiny
part of the mouse cerebral cortex contains 47 different types of
cell, most of which are specialised neurons of one kind or other.
An important aspect of his research involves understanding the
processes that give rise to these cell types under normal circumstances and in cases of cancer.
“My own research mainly concerns cell types in the brain,
but single cell analysis is relevant to research on all organs,” says
Professor Linnarsson.
As head of the new national facility for single cell analysis at the
SciLifeLab in Solna, Professor Linnarsson helps other researchers
use the technique in their own work. He and colleagues from
Oxford have also identified exactly which cell type causes the
blood disease MDS.
Sten Linnarsson
Professor of Molecular System Biology specialising in Transcriptomics at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Sten Linnarsson was born in Stockholm in 1971. He studied molecular biology at Stockholm University, graduating in 1995. In 2001
he earned his PhD from KI and founded Global Genomics, returning to KI as an assistant professor on a Swedish Research Council
grant when the company was sold in 2007.
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Sten Linnarsson was appointed platform director of SciLifeLab’s
Eukaryotic Single Cell Genomics Facility in 2015.
Sten Linnarsson was appointed professor of molecular system
biology specialising in transcriptomics at Karolinska Institutet on
1 July 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
To manipulate vaccine respons
Karin Loré studies how the immune system responds to vaccination and how protective responses to infectious
diseases are established. In particular, she focuses on how immune-stimulating substances – vaccine adjuvants – can
induce stronger responses which is important for the development of vaccines to infections like hiv/aids and malaria.
Vaccines for smallpox, polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella and
tetanus represent some of the greatest medical advances, with
many millions of lives saved. However, details on how the body
develops immunity to vaccines are still largely unknown. Karin
Loré’s research activities are focused to change this.
“Infectious diseases such as hiv/aids, malaria and tuberculosis
still claim millions of lives every year,” she says. “It’s clear that we
need a much better understanding of the immune mechanisms
that dictate vaccine responses to be able to develop such vaccines.”
Professor Loré’s research group is particularly interested in
different kinds of adjuvants, which are substances added to vaccines to reinforce the immune reaction. A major part of their
research is to analyse the efficacy of newly developed adjuvants
and how they affect the immune system – something that is still
not understood. With better adjuvants, there is not only potential
to develop improved vaccines to challenging infections but also
prospects of using lower vaccine antigen doses, fewer immunizations and reach sufficient protection in people with weakened
immune systems. One part of Professor Loré’s research focuses on
the dendritic cells, which play a critical part in how the immune
system responds to vaccination and control the cells that establish
the immunological memory.
“The dendritic cells direct the work of the immune system,”
she explains. “If we can learn more about how they can be manipulated with different adjuvants, we’ll be in a better position to
develop effective vaccines.”
Karin Loré
Professor of Vaccination Immunology specialising in Innate
Immunity at the Department of Medicine, Solna
Karin Loré was born in Jönköping in 1972. She graduated with a
degree in molecular biology and biochemistry in 1995, earning her
PhD in immunology from KI in 2001. She then spent four years as
a postdoctoral researcher at the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center in
the USA.
In 2005 Loré returned to KI to establish her own research group
and became docent in 2010. She and her group subsequently spent
the years between 2011 and 2014 back at the NIH.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Karin Loré was appointed professor of vaccination immunology
specialising in innate immunity at Karolinska Institutet on
1 September 2014.
21
PROFESSOR S
Implementation is difficult
How can the education process improve student learning, and what will it take for the necessary changes to actually
advance from management decision to implementation? Lena Nilsson-Wikmar’s research focuses on learning in
higher education.
Lena Nilsson-Wikmar’s physiotherapy professorship is centred on
education, which means that her research focus will henceforth be
on issues relating to how teaching methods can be developed as
a means to improving student learning from both a professional
and interprofessional perspective.
“KI is currently working very hard on modernising its teaching,
which is why research is needed in this field too,” she explains.
The existing research often points out the advantages of studentcentred learning, and education rooms are currently being erected
at KI to help make it happen. But what then?
“Implementation is difficult to research, but critical,” says
Professor Nilsson-Wikmar. “How are these new possibilities
exploited? What is it that ultimately decides whether a teacher
enters a room and gives the same old lecture or chooses a more
student-centred interactive pedagogical approach? These are the
kinds of question that we ask in our research.”
Although Professor Nilsson-Wikmar’s research will focus
mainly on the physiotherapy programme, she hopes that her
results will be of more general relevance to the whole university.
In parallel with this work, Professor Nilsson-Wikmar will also
be continuing her research on back pain from a bio-psychosocial
perspective and her involvement in two international projects
studying people with spinal cord injury using instruments recommended by the International Spinal Cord Society.
Lena Nilsson-Wikmar
Professor of Physiotherapy specialising in Education at the
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society
Lena Nilsson-Wikmar was born in Lund in 1952 and took her
degree in physiotherapy from Krankengymnastikschule in Freiburg,
Germany, in 1976. Since moving to KI in 1981 she has been engaged in the physiotherapy programme, spending ten years as
deputy head of department from 1983, and then as deputy
divisional manager from 2003 to 2009.
22
Lena Nilsson-Wikmar earned her PhD in 2003 and became a docent
in 2010. She is currently Departmental Educational Coordinator
and in 2014 was made chair of KI’s Pedagogical Academy.
Lena Nilsson-Wikmar was appointed professor of physiotherapy
specialising in education at Karolinska Institutet on 15 June 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
Scaffolds designed to engineer tissues
Molly Stevens is the Head of the new Division of Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine at KI. By combining
knowledge in material design and biology, her research group generates new technologies for repairing the body.
Molly M Stevens
Professor of Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine at the
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Molly Stevens was born in the UK in 1974 and grew up in France.
She received her PhD from University of Nottingham, UK, in
2001 and conducted her postdoctoral research at MIT, USA, in
2001–2003, where she co-developed innovative techniques for the
regeneration of bone and other tissues.
Stevens joined Imperial College, UK, in 2004 and was promoted
as one of the youngest ever full professors in 2008. Her research
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Another area of interest is how cells interact with material interfaces. This knowledge can be used in directing cell response and
in tailoring materials for specific clinical needs.
Further, Stevens uses new techniques to study the influence
of materials on cells. Her team recently reported that they had
found highly crystalline mineralised particles, dense fibres and
compact materials within calcified aortic vascular tissues by
applying a new variant of electron microscopy.
“Such findings may provide important insights into our understanding of the disease aetiology and possible treatments”, Stevens
concludes.
Photo: Private.
Molly Stevens’ research focuses on designing and developing bioinspired materials for applications in regenerative medicine, tissue
engineering and biosensing.
“I aim to change the way we can use materials-based approaches
for regenerative medicine and to improve upon the established
technologies to provide better care for patients”, she says. “We
are making progress in developing scaffolds designed to engineer
bone, cartilage, neural and cardiac tissues.”
Stevens’ diverse team of bioengineers, chemists, biologists, materials scientists and surgeons have been able to develop materials
for bone regeneration and other materials that can recreate some
of the complexity that is found in native biological tissues such as
cartilage and heart.
Her team is also developing and using nanomaterials-based
technologies to deliver specific drugs and signals to the developing tissue.
has been recognised by over 20 major awards, such as the
EU40 Prize for best material scientist under the age of 40.
Molly Stevens was offered a professorship in biomaterials
and regenerative medicine at Karolinska Institutet starting on
1 January 2015.
23
PROFESSOR S
We have made giant strides forward
Patrick Sullivan is engaged in major international research collaborations to understand the genetics and biology
of schizophrenia. He currently divides his time between the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA, and
Karolinska Institutet.
“The aim of my research is to one day be able to prevent schizophrenia,” says Professor Sullivan. “If that’s not possible, we’ll find
much better treatments for the disease than those available today.”
To this end, Professor Sullivan has helped to found large
consortia with research groups from around the world. One of
them, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) includes nine
psychiatric diagnoses and over 800 researchers in 36 countries.
“I like working in large groups, and it’s more efficient for groups
to collaborate than to work alone,” he says. “The PGC has made
giant strides forward.”
Professor Sullivan is now planning a new partnership with
European research groups that will cultivate cells with risk genes
for schizophrenia.
“One of the main problems in psychiatric research has been
the absence of living tissue to study,” he explains. “But new tools
have become available over the past decade that allow us to create
living neurons – brain cells – out of skin cells.”
The aim of the different research tracks is to understand the
biological causes of schizophrenia, which are currently very much
a mystery.
“Once we understand the biology we can expect the development of drugs to pick up; it could even be possible, the biology
allowing, to prevent the disease.”
Professor Sullivan, who is also a professor at the University of
North Carolina, has been a regular visiting researcher at KI since
2001.
“The quality of the Swedish medical register makes Sweden the
best place in the world for this kind of research,” he says.
Patrick Sullivan
Professor of Psychiatric Genetics at the Department of
Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Patrick Sullivan was born in 1959 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.
He graduated in medicine from the University of California San
Francisco in 1988, and went on to specialise in psychiatry.
He researched at the Christchurch School of Medicine from
1994 to 1996, when he was employed as associate professor at the
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric & Behavioral Genetics, becoming
professor in 2002. He was appointed professor at the University
24
of North Carolina in 2003, a position that he now holds on a parttime (50%) basis.
Patrick Sullivan was offered a professorship in psychiatric
genetics at Karolinska Institutet starting on 15 October 2014.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
We need to discuss end-of-life
Carol Tishelman is an experienced KI professor although she has been recently appointed as Professor of Innovative
Care, with a newly established professorial chair funded by an endowment. She is active in research into how people
experience sickness and health care – at present focusing particularly on end-of-life care.
In 2006, Carol Tishelman became Professor of Nursing at KI.
Her research has primarily concerned the experiences of sickness
and care from the perspective of patients, family, and nursing
staff, and how care processes can be improved on the basis of this
knowledge. She is particularly interested in end-of-life care. In
a newly started research programme DöBra (literally meaning
Dying Well, but idiomatically meaning “awesome”), Tishelman
collaborates with different sectors of society –e.g. interest groups,
organisations, museums, theatres – to investigate how the situation for dying people and those close to them can be improved.
“Most people say they prefer to die at home, according to a survey we carried out, about 70 per cent. Nevertheless, a very large
share of these people die in acute care hospitals. One reason for
this may be that we don’t discuss our priorities and values around
the end-of-life with those close to us. In DöBra we investigate, for
example, ways to initiate such conversations.”
Another area that interests Carol Tishelman is the link between
staff experiences of their work situation and the quality of the
care. Among other things, she has shown a relationship between a
poor working situation for nurses and deficits in patient safety.
Her new professorial position, funded with a donation from
the Swedish investment company Investor, is located at both the
Medical Management Centre, at KI and the Innovation Center at
Karolinska University Hospital.
“An important element of this new role is to be a ‘match maker’
between stakeholders in health care, research and education, who
share an interest in innovation. I have worked to bridge this gulf
for several decades,” she says.
Carol Tishelman
Professor of Innovative Care at the Department of Learning,
Informatics, Management and Ethics
Carol Tishelman was born in New York in 1953. Her education in
the USA included Women Studies 1970–1973 and a Bachelor of
Science in Nursing 1978–1980.
Carol Tishelman defended her doctoral thesis at KI in 1993 and
has remained at KI since. She became docent in 2000 and was
promoted to a full professorship in Nursing in 2006. She has also
been affiliated as Professor at LaTrobe University, Australia, and at
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
the University of Manchester, England. She is currently a visiting
professor at the University of Southampton, England.
Carol Tishelman was appointed professor of innovative care at
Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position of university
nurse at Innovationsplatsen, Karolinska University Hospital starting
on 1 October 2014.
25
PROFESSOR S
Heart attack with unusual cause
Myocardial infarction in people with healthy coronary arteries is far more common than once thought. Much
remains unknown about the causes, diagnosis and treatment of these infarctions, but Per Tornvall hopes to put this
right.
Myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, is not
always caused by a narrowing of the coronary artery. Professor
Tornvall researches on people who have suffered a heart attack
despite having healthy coronary arteries, a patient group that
has only recently been found to be relatively large, representing
around 10 per cent of all infarctions, or 2,000 to 3,000 cases a year
in Sweden.
“One of the objectives of our research is to develop diagnostics
in the field, so that all these patients can be correctly diagnosed,”
says Professor Tornvall. “My research group has already shown
how diagnostics can be improved using magnetic resonance
(MR), and we are now following this up with a study in which we
hope to be able to make the correct diagnosis in 70 per cent of cases
solely on the basis of MR. A correct diagnosis is important, as
different types of infarction require different types of treatment.”
The most common cause of myocardial infarction in the presence of a healthy coronary artery is a so-called “broken heart”,
or takotsubo as it is known to medicine, where much of the left
ventricle ceases to work and swells up. Professor Tornvall’s group
is studying the causes of broken heart syndrome and the risks it
entails.
“We know that it’s associated with stress, but what the underlying
mechanisms look like we’ve yet to find out. We’ve also recently
begun a study of its genetic causes in an attempt to discover if
there are any differences in stress hormone receptors.”
Treatment of this type of infarction is another aspect of the
work being done by Professor Tornvall, who is also preparing a
national treatment study in the field.
Per Tornvall
Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Clinical
Research and Education, Södersjukhuset
Per Tornvall was born in Stockholm in 1957. He took his medical
degree at KI in 1984, becoming a registered doctor two years later.
He went on to specialise in internal medicine in 1993 and cardiology in 1995.
Alongside his work at cardiology clinics in Stockholm, Per Tornvall has also been researching at KI. He earned his PhD in 1993 and
became docent in 1998.
26
Between 2001 and 2002 he was a visiting research fellow at the
Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics in Oxford.
Since 2014 he is head of the Department of Clinical Research
and Education, Södersjukhuset.
Per Tornvall was appointed professor of cardiology at Karolinska
Institutet in combination with the position of senior physician at
Södersjukhuset starting on 1 June 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
The calcium waves in the cell
As a doctoral student, Per Uhlén discovered that the calcium concentration in cells can fluctuate at a certain
frequency, roughly like a radio signal. He is now trying to understand the meaning of these signals for the healthy
and diseased body.
Calcium ions, Ca2+, are important to a wide variety of cellular
processes from the moment of fertilisation and onwards throughout life. Sometimes regular fluctuations occur in the level of
calcium in the cells, creating a wave motion that oscillates at a
constant frequency. Per Uhlén researches such fluctuations and
the role they play in development and in cancer.
“I discovered the phenomenon as a doctoral student and it fascinated me,” he says. “Since I’m originally a physicist, I knew that
it’s possible to use maths to analyse oscillating systems.”
His first discovery concerned kidney cells, the calcium level
of which starts to fluctuate in twelve-minute cycles when treated
with E.coli bacteria. If the same cells are treated instead with
digoxin, a different wave pattern emerges of roughly double the
frequency.
“There’s a lot to indicate that the fluctuations are specific signals
for intra- and intercell communication,” says Professor Uhlén.
“We’ve shown that the cells can interpret these signals but how
they are generated and decoded is something we know very little
about.”
Professor Uhlén wants to find out more about the role of these
calcium fluctuations both in the healthy and in the diseased body.
An interesting area in which these wave motions have been
observed is cell division, and Professor Uhlén wants to examine
the link between the waves and asymmetric cell division, which is
essential to physiological development as well as to tumour growth.
“Our plan for the future is to create experiments in which we
can artificially control the wave frequencies and analyse how they
influence the genes. This would give us valuable information on
the function of the signals.”
Per Uhlén
Professor of Dynamic Imaging of Intracellular Signalling at
the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Per Uhlén was born in Uppsala in 1969 and has an MSc in engineering physics from the Royal Institute of Technology. He graduated
with his PhD at KI in 2002. He did his postdoc research between
2003 and 2005 at Yale University, USA, and spent six months as
visiting researcher at Marine Biological Lab, Woods Hole, USA.
In 2006 Uhlén returned to KI and became docent in 2008. In
2010 he was a visiting professor at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
In 2009 he was awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’
five-year research fellow position with support from the Knut and
Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), and the following year the
Swedish Research Council’s (VR) six-year senior research position.
Per Uhlén was appointed professor of dynamic imaging of intracellular signalling at Karolinska Institutet on 1 October 2014.
27
PROFESSOR S
Apps for real time communication
Yvonne Wengström researches how care can support patients’ symptom burden and well-being during treatment
for cancer; this she does in dialogue with the patients themselves.
Cancer treatments often have severe side effects, and Yvonne
Wengström’s research investigates how care can improve the
well-being of such patients. One consistent theme in her work is
patient involvement.
“It’s very much about help for self-care,” she explains. “We ask
the patients what they feel to be the most serious problems and
then together we develop tools to help them.”
Professor Wengström’s main focus has been breast cancer, and
she is currently studying how different exercise programmes affect
this patient group’s quality of life.
“We know from previous studies that exercise relieves the
discomfort of treatment and reduces the risk of relapse,” she says.
“But what kinds of exercise are best? That’s what we’re trying to
find out.”
Another track that Professor Wengström is following is e-health
use in the clinical setting. The research group is conducting randomised studies of patients with different cancer diagnoses and
elderly people receiving home care to examine how an app for
tablets and smartphones can be used for real time communication
between the patient and the care provider. The tool has been
developed in dialogue with users.
“In one of the studies, in this case of prostate patients, we’ve
obtained a preliminary result – that the group using our tool
experiences less symptoms,” she says. “The study also shows that
they are very happy with the tool and feel well-taken care of.”
Professor Wengström is also looking into the issue of how
hospitals change their work processes when e-health apps are
implemented.
Yvonne Wengström
Professor of Nursing at the Department of Neurobiology,
Care Sciences and Society
Yvonne Wengström was born in Stockholm in 1959. She is a trained
cancer nurse with a degree from KI from 1991. She earned her PhD
at KI in 2000 and became a docent in 2008.
Wengström has many years’ experiences as a clinician and
researcher at Karolinska University Hospital and KI, and has held
several senior positions, including divisional manager.
From 2008 to 2010 she was professor and deputy director of
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R&D at the University of Stirling’s Cancer Care Research Centre in
Scotland. From 2010 to 2013 she was a visiting research fellow at
the University of Dundee, Scotland.
Yvonne Wengström was appointed professor of nursing at
Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position of university
nurse at the Karolinska University Hospital starting on 1 July 2015.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
To balance risks and benefits
Should we avoid fatty fish because it contains PCB – or eat it because it contains omega-3? Agneta Åkesson
combines several research fields in order to piece together a picture of how factors such as diet and lifestyle
affect our health.
Agneta Åkesson researches how our dietary and lifestyle habits
affect our risk of contracting diseases such as cardiovascular
disease, cancer and osteoporosis.
Her professorship bridges several scientific disciplines – epidemiology, nutrition, toxicology and environmental medicine.
“Traditionally, this research has been divided over several fields,
which is why we don’t have the whole picture of the effects of
different health factors,” says Professor Åkesson. “One significant
example is that some of our most important foods, contributing
to an array of nutrients, have also become our largest sources of
environmental pollutants.”
Fatty fish, which contains omega-3 as well as PCB, and whole
grain products, which are high in cadmium are examples where
she studied such risk-benefit aspects.
“In one ongoing research review we are looking at nuts, which
on the one hand often contain aflatoxins, but on the other have
significant health benefits,” she says. “And we can see that the
health benefits are much greater.”
Much of her research is based on large cohorts and biobanks,
which allow for prospective studies. The Swedish mammography
cohort and the cohort of Swedish men, which together total
over 100,000 individuals, are examples of this. The results of
her research manifest themselves in the limit values and dietary
guidelines issued by the authorities; she was directly involved, for
instance, in revising the exposure limit for cadmium, which the
European Food Safety Authority lowered considerably in 2009.
Agneta Åkesson
Professor of Epidemiology specialising in Nutrition and
Toxicology at the Institute of Environmental Medicine
Agneta Åkesson was born in Stockholm in 1957. She took her
degree in chemistry with nutrition from Stockholm University
in 1989, after which she went on to study toxicology and public
health science. In 2000, she graduated with a doctorate from the
IMM, KI, where she remained to pursue postdoctoral research from
2001 to 2004.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Between 2005 and 2008 Åkesson was on a research fellowship from
the Swedish Research Council. She became a docent in 2007, and
in 2013 was awarded a six-year research position.
Agneta Åkesson was appointed professor of epidemiology
specialising in nutrition and toxicology at Karolinska Institutet on
1 July 2015.
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PROFESSOR S
30
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PROFESSOR S
ADJUNCT PROFESSORS
AND VISITING PROFESSORS
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
31
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Barbro Dahlén
Adjunct Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and Allergology at the Department of
Medicine, Huddinge. The position is at 0.3 FTE and funded by Karolinska University
Hospital. The appointment is for four years, starting on 15 September 2014.
Barbro Dahlén is a senior physician who has conducted research into airway diseases and
allergies for over 30 years. The focus of her research is to investigate how certain cells and
the substances they release, called mediators, can cause airway inflammation and bronchial
obstruction in asthmatic patients. Barbro Dahlén’s research group has developed methods of
safely provoking asthma in patients by escalating doses of, for example, birch pollen spray.
The cells and their mediators can then be studied by collecting samples of bodily fluids from
patients and comparing them to measurements of lung function.
There are many different types of asthma, and the aim of Barbro Dahlén’s research is to
develop novel diagnostics and to test new treatment strategies for specific types of asthma.
She is particularly interested in helping patients with aspirin/NSAID-intolerant asthma, a life
threatening asthma that have poor treatment options and is triggered by common painkillers
in susceptible patients.
Barbro Dahlén loves conducting research since she has always had a curious nature, but
her strongest drive is her commitment to improving the lives of those suffering from airway
diseases.
Solvig Ekblad
Adjunct Professor of Multicultural Health Services Research at the Department
of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics. The position is at 0.2 FTE and
funded by Akademiskt Primärvårdscentrum, Stockholm County Council.
The appointment is for two years, starting on 1 February 2015.
The prevalence of physical and mental ill health among immigrants is twice that of the Swedishborn population. Solvig Ekblad is a researcher, a teacher and a practicing psychologist,
specialising in multicultural health and care research with a focus on mental ill health. She
heads a research group that is addressing the health needs of immigrants from several different
perspectives. These include “virtual clinical encounters” between doctors and refugee patients,
and health promotion interventions to recent refugees.
Previous research shows that traumatised refugees need extra support. The optimal starting
approach is for the primary caregivers (e.g. physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, midwives and
psychologists) to provide culturally tailored clinical information and health literacy sessions
to groups of recent refugees. The two-way communication in these sessions empowers the
newcomers, thus improving their health and well-being.
Solvig Ekblad is working with Karolinska Institutet to increase the skills and knowledge
in multicultural health by conducting research projects, setting up educational courses, and
supervising students at both undergraduate and advanced levels.
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FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Mikael Forsman
Adjunct Professor of Ergonomics at the Institute of Environmental Medicine.
The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by Centrum för arbets- och miljömedicin,
Stockholm County Council. The appointment is for three years, starting on 15
September 2014.
Mikael Forsman is passionate about health in the workplace and has chosen to specialise in
occupational medicine and ergonomics. His area of expertise is biomechanical loads on
muscles and joints, arising from poor work posture, heavy loads and repetitive movements.
Mikael Forsman collaborates with physiotherapists, physicians and psychologists to quantify
work load, to identify the correlation between load and health, and to develop work health
recommendations at both the individual and organisational level.
Mikael Forsman works with practitioners to develop smart methods to measure working
postures and movements. He practices participatory ergonomics where the workers are involved in the intervention process. He is, for example, helping garbage collectors by identifying their true occupational risk factors – jumping out of the truck may impose a higher
risk for the workers than pulling heavy loads. He is also investigating the correlation between
working with a high arm position and shoulder disorders.
In addition to his many research activities, Mikael Forsman is contributing to the area of
occupational medicine by teaching and supervising master‘s and PhD students.
Eva Hurt-Camejo
Photo: Private.
Adjunct Professor of Biochemical Cardiovascular Research at the Department of
Laboratory Medicine. The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by AstraZeneca. The
appointment is for four years, starting on 1 October 2014.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Eva Hurt-Camejo is part of an initiative where scientists from the pharmaceutical industry
work alongside scientists at Karolinska Institutet. The aim of the collaboration is to translate
academic research into treatments that can deliver real benefits to patients in need.
Eva Hurt-Camejo is an expert on the involvement of lipids in various diseases such as
cardiovascular disease and diabetes. She has always enjoyed working in a multidisciplinary
environment with everything from basic science to clinical trials. At AstraZeneca, she gained
experience in drug discovery – to identify and validate disease targets, with the aim to treat or
prevent atherosclerosis. She is also actively involved in a number of medical associations, including the European Atherosclerosis Society and the International Society of Atherosclerosis.
At Karolinska Institutet, Eva Hurt-Camejo has joined the team of Professor Paolo Parini,
where she can use her experience in drug discovery and pharmaceutical development to
complement the team. Her wish is that her extensive experience will contribute to a successful
outcome for the collaboration between AstraZeneca and Karolinska Institutet.
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ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Ralph Knöll
Adjunct Professor of Myocardial Genetics at the Department of Medicine,
Huddinge. The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by AstraZeneca. The appointment is for four years, starting on 1 March 2015.
Ralph Knöll is a newly appointed professor at the Integrated Cardio Metabolic Centre
(ICMC), a joint venture between Karolinska Institutet and AstraZeneca. The aim of the collaboration is to identify and validate novel small molecules that can be used in the treatment
of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
The focus of Ralph Knöll’s research group is the genetics and epigenetics of cardiovascular
diseases. They use a novel gene-editing technology called CRISPR that allows them to make
changes to the genome at very precise locations. By introducing mutations and turning genes
on and off in mice, they unravel the molecular mechanisms that cause disease. One of the
ultimate aims is to develop innovative, ground-breaking therapies to treat and possibly cure
heart failure.
Ralph Knöll has always had a curious mind but his major driving force is to help mankind.
Sharing his time between academia and industry is an ideal combination since it allows him
to translate basic research into clinical science, with the potential to provide real benefits to
patients in need.
Nina Lundberg
Adjunct Professor of E-Health in Medical Radiology at the Department of Clinical
Science, Intervention and Technology. The appointment is at 0.2 FTE and funded
by Stockholm County Council. The appointment is for four years, starting on
1 September 2014.
Nina Lundberg is contributing to improved healthcare by pursuing her passion – research in
e-health. During the last five years, she has been developing information infrastructure for a
range of e-services for the healthcare system. The aim is to make information accessible in a
meaningful way to patients, healthcare providers, researchers and authorities, while adhering
to relevant policies such as the Patient Data Act.
My Care Pathways, for example, allows Swedish citizens to manage their past, present and
future health events online. In another initiative, patients can access their medical records and
also choose which healthcare providers to share their records with.
Nina Lundberg leads many of these initiatives and ensures that they function as an integrated whole, where information can flow freely between systems. To enable this, she has started
the Health Innovation Platform, which gives developers and designers access to tools that
simplify the development of e-services. Components from different e-services can be shared
and reused, with the intention of increasing innovation, improving quality and lowering costs.
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FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Jonas Mattsson
Adjunct Professor of Cell Therapy at the Department of Oncology-Pathology.
The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by the Karolinska University Hospital.
The appointment is for three years starting on 1 May 2015.
Jonas Mattsson’s area of research is immunology and cancer, focusing on stem cell transplantation. Patients with leukaemia and other malignant blood disorders often need to have their
bone marrow, or immune cells, replaced with stem cells from a healthy donor.
Much of Jonas Mattsson’s research deals with improving stem cell transplantation methods
in order to avoid and treat severe complications that may occur after transplantation. For
example, Jonas Mattsson’s group has developed new ways of treating life-threatening viral
infections that may develop after stem cell transplantation, using specific T-cells from a donor
or a close relative. This treatment has shown very promising results and a significant number
of patients have been cured.
Jonas Mattsson is particularly interested in helping people with treatment resistant and
recurrent cancers. He is researching targeted immunotherapy treatment, where the patient’s
own T-cells are removed from the blood and then reprogrammed to specifically attack cancer
cells. This has the potential to cure cancer patients who would not survive on standard chemotherapy alone.
Ali Mirazimi
Adjunct Professor of Clinical Virology at the Department of Laboratory Medicine.
The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by the National Veterinary Institute. The
appointment is for four years starting on 1 March 2015.
The world has recently experienced several outbreaks of deadly viral infections. Ali Mirazimi
has spent the last 15 years studying how our immune system fights these deadly viruses. Currently, he is focussing on the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) and Ebola viruses.
These viruses cause high fever and headaches, followed by bleeding, organ failure, and death
in 5-30 per cent of CCHF and up to 90 per cent of Ebola cases.
These viruses primarily interfere with the body’s first line of defence, the innate immune
system. Ali Mirazami’s research group has shown that the CCHF virus has mechanisms that
help it avoid the antiviral activity of the innate immune system’s primary weapon against
viruses – the interferons. They have also developed new model systems that can be used to
investigate interactions between viruses and host cells. The primary aim is to find a vaccine
against CCHF and novel antivirals against CCHF and Ebola.
Ali Mirazami is also actively involved in the development of new diagnostics. Since the targeted viruses are most prevalent in poor countries with limited infrastructure, it is important
that the diagnostic tests can be used in the field or in a small clinic.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
35
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Magnus Nord
Adjunct Professor of Experimental Pulmonary Medicine at the Department of
Medicine, Solna. The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by AstraZeneca R&D.
The appointment is for four years, starting 1 January 2015.
Magnus Nord’s long term goal is to find new treatments for severe diseases that have limited
treatment options. His main research area is respiratory medicine, focusing on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD). COPD is characterised by breathing difficulties and is often caused by smoking. It is a leading cause of death
worldwide and current treatments can at best slow disease progression. ILD is a rarer lung
disease that can be caused by the use of certain cancer therapeutics, thus limiting their use in
cancer patients. ILD has a high mortality rate and few treatment options.
Magnus Nord is studying signalling mechanisms in inflammatory lung diseases. He is also
researching new biomarkers with the aim to establish better ways to diagnose ILD. The association with Karolinska Institutet allows him to conduct academic research that provides the
basis for new therapies. This complements his principal work at AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company with the resources and scientific competence to bring new medicines to patients
in need.
Ann Nordgren
Adjunct Professor of Clinical Genetics at the Department of Molecular Medicine
and Surgery. The position is at 0.5 FTE and funded by Karolinska University
Hospital. The appointment is for four years starting on 1 July 2015.
Ann Nordgren uses her expertise in clinical genetics and experience as a consultant to help
people with rare diseases and children with cancer.
In her role as project manager at the Centre for Rare Diseases at Karolinska University Hospital, Ann Nordgren established a clinical expert team for syndrome diagnostics in 2012. As a
result, more than 50 % of patients receive a diagnosis, and affected families are offered genetic
counselling and proper medical care.
Ann Nordgren’s second speciality is childhood cancers. The two areas combine perfectly
since genes found in rare syndromes are often also involved in cancer. She is particularly
interested in factors that predispose children to getting leukaemia.
By utilising the increasingly powerful DNA-sequencing technologies, Ann Nordgren’s
research group has identified a number of new syndromes and mutations in previously known
disorders, including autism, intellectual disability and rare cancer susceptibility syndromes.
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FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Lennart Nordström
Photo: Private.
Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics at the Department of Women’s and Children’s
Health. The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by Karolinska University Hospital.
The appointment is for four years, starting on 1 January 2015.
Lennart Nordström’s main research area is intrapartum foetal monitoring. His research group
develops diagnostic tools that determine the condition of the foetus in the womb. They have
developed a safe and simplified method of detecting a lack of oxygen at the bedside. During
labour, foetal heart rate abnormalities are quite common, with only a subset due to a severe
lack of oxygen (one to two per cent of deliveries). Oxygen loss leads to an increase in lactate,
which can be detected in foetal scalp blood. The methodology was tested in a large randomised
multicentre trial and implemented in all Swedish labour wards and in many wards outside
Sweden.
The diagnostic tools developed by Dr Nordström’s group are vital for selecting the right type
of intervention – usually delivery by caesarean section or vacuum extraction. Currently, computer analyses of foetal heart rate traces are being performed in collaboration with KTH Royal
Institute of Technology. They are also continuing the development of lactate analysis devices to
improve testing for both the obstetrician and the labouring woman. Dr Nordström was crown
princess Victoria’s obstetrician during her pregnancy and delivery in 2011/2012.
Claes Norring
Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience. The position is at 0.2 FTE and funded by the Stockholm Centre for Eating
Disorders. The appointment is for four years starting on 1 March 2015.
Eating disorders affect five to ten per cent of young females and up to one per cent of young
males and entail great suffering, risk for chronic development, increased mortality, and a
substantial cost to society. Claes Norring is a clinical psychologist who has dedicated his career
to improving the lives of this group of patients.
Dr Norring is registry manager for Riksät, Sweden’s first psychiatric quality register. Today,
Riksät comprises data on more than 23,000 eating disorder treatments. He is also developing
a national portal (www.psykiatrikompassen.se) that will provide online access to results from
all psychiatric quality registers in Sweden. The overall aim of quality registers is to make indicators of health processes and outcomes accessible, comparable, and transparent as a means to
improve the quality of clinical care.
A central question for Dr Norring has always been how to conceptualise and describe eating
disorders in a clinically meaningful and useful way. The aim is to give clinicians the tools they
need to best help people with eating disorders. With a clinically meaningful conceptualisation,
they can make optimal treatment plans and useful prognostic formulations.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
37
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S
Håkan Wallén
Photo: Johan Adelgren.
Adjunct Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Clinical Sciences,
Danderyd Hospital. The position is at 0.3 FTE and funded by Danderyd Hospital.
The appointment is for four years, starting 1 October 2014.
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Håkan Wallén is a senior physician in cardiology. He is passionate about helping people and
therefore combines time in the clinic with research into diseases such as heart attack and
stroke.
Håkan Wallén’s main research area is thrombosis. Thrombosis is when blood clots form in
blood vessels, obstructing the blood flow. This can lead to organ damage and cause complications such as heart attacks, stroke, chronic heart failure and chronic foot sores in diabetics.
His research group is trying to understand what causes thrombosis and then use this knowledge to develop tests to study disease mechanisms. Some of these tests are simple “blood
tests” that can be used to monitor the condition of patients and to guide the physician in
determining when the treatment needs to be modified.
One of the long term aims for the research group is to develop tools for “personalised
medicine”. The ultimate goal would be for each patient to have an individualised treatment
plan according to their specific needs.
In the clinic, Håkan Wallén identifies clinical problems and knowledge gaps. He then
addresses these deficiencies in his research to improve health care and the lives of patients.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
VISITING PROFESSOR S
Lauri Aaltonen
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Cancer Genetics at the Department of Biosciences and
Nutrition. The position is at 0.2 FTE for five years starting on 1 June 2015.
Lauri Aaltonen’s principal position is Professor at the University of Helsinki.
Lauri Aaltonen is a cancer geneticist who has dedicated his career to unravelling the molecular
basis of hereditary and sporadic tumours. Dr Aaltonen’s team has identified a number of colon
cancer susceptibility genes. These discoveries have enabled the design and implementation of
screening programs for colorectal cancer, significantly reducing cancer related morbidity and
mortality in individuals at risk.
Uterine myoma is a noncancerous tumour that affects one in four women. It is the most
common cause for hysterectomy. Dr Aaltonen was the first to characterize the complete
genome of this tumour type and he discovered that not all myomas are identical. The aim is
to characterize the different subclasses, since only then can drugs be designed to specifically
target and cure the myomas as noninvasively as possible.
Dr Aaltonen also investigates unexplained hereditary cancers. When the team has identified the genetic cause for a particular cancer, new screening programs can be designed and
implemented to identify individuals at risk. The findings also increase the understanding of
the molecular mechanisms that cause cancer in general.
Patrick Cramer
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Structure Biology and Systems Biology at the Department
of Biosciences and Nutrition. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on
1 January 2015. Patrick Cramer’s principal position is Professor at the Max Planck
Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Patrick Cramer’s research focus is gene transcription, one of the fundamental processes in all
living cells. During transcription DNA is copied into RNA, which is then used as a template
to make proteins. Gene transcription is carried out by nanomachines (RNA polymerases)
that move along DNA. Together with a large number of molecules, these machines form the
dynamic transcription machinery.
Dr Cramer’s research group has mapped the three-dimensional molecular structure of RNA
polymerase complexes and established principles of gene regulation in cells. Among other
things, the team recently made a movie to visualise transcription. At Karolinska Institutet,
Dr Cramer will establish a laboratory that aims to decipher the mechanisms and principles of
gene regulation in human cells. The team will use sequencing and computational methods to
study how transcription is regulated in cells, and how it is regulated differently in states such as
cancer.
Patrick Cramer recently became director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical
Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, and will strengthen research at Karolinska Institutet with
his skills and experience in molecular biology.
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VISITING PROFESSOR S
Ann-Charlotte Granholm
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Neurosciences at the Department of Neurobiology,
Care Sciences and Society. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on
1 January 2015. Ann-Charlotte Granholm’s principal position is Professor at
the Medical University of South Carolina.
Ann-Charlotte Granholm is collaborating with scientists all over the world to find solutions to
ageing-related medical problems. Her major research interest is ageing disorders of the brain,
focusing on Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Dr Granholm is currently conducting a multinational exercise study in collaboration with
Karolinska Institutet and several other universities. The aim is to determine if mental abilities
in older people improve with exercise, mindfulness or cognitive training. The effectiveness of
the training is evaluated by cognitive tests for memory, attention and reasoning, and by measuring blood levels of BDNF, a biomarker for brain health.
People affected by Down syndrome have a high probability of developing Alzheimer’s
disease. Dr Granholm and colleagues are planning a multi-site study, where subjects with
variable degrees of Alzheimer type dementia will be compared to subjects without mental impairment. Biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid will be used to follow the progression
of the disease. The long-term goal is to develop diagnostic tests, novel preventive treatments
and interventions to help people with Down syndrome.
Anu Kantele
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Infectious Medicine specialising in Travel Medicine, at the
Department of Medicine, Solna. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting
on 1 May 2015. Anu Kantele’s principal position is Adjunct Professor at Helsinki
University and Helsinki University Hospital.
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Anu Kantele is passionate about research in infectious diseases. She is the only clinical lecturer
in adult infectious medicine at Helsinki University, head of the Aava travel clinic in Helsinki,
and she has chaired several medical associations in the field. Her studies focus on traveller’s
health and tropical diseases, and she has collaborated with Karolinska Institutet for several
years, seeking the best vaccination strategies to protect travellers from diseases such as Japanese
encephalitis and hepatitis A.
Currently, Anu Kantele’s most active research interest is travellers’ diarrhoea and resistant
bacteria. She is dedicated to restricting the use of antibiotics and educating travellers on their
use, since both overuse and misuse can cause the spread of antibiotic resistance. Recently, her
research team found that antibiotic use predisposes travellers to resistant bacteria: up to 80 per
cent of those treating diarrhoea with antibiotics returned with resistant strains in their guts.
Most of these would not have needed antibiotics since the disease normally remains mild.
Over 300 million people travel to high risk areas every year, so the research is addressing a
serious problem.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
VISITING PROFESSOR S
Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Cancer Epigenetics at the Department of Microbiology,
Tumor and Cell Biology. The appointment is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on
1 March 2015. Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu’s principal position is Senior Scientist
(Professor) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California.
Terumi Kohwi-Shigematsu has spent over 30 years unravelling the secrets of DNA. For the entire genome to fit into a single cell, the long strings of DNA must be tightly folded and packed
into the nucleus. To make specific proteins, the cells must then unfold the genome in a specific
way at a subset of genes, and this is the focus of Dr Kohwi-Shigematsu’s research group.
Dr Kohwi-Shigematsu is particularly interested in the epigenetics of cancer and is studying
a protein called SATB1 that can trigger aggressive breast cancer. SATB1 plays a role in the
regulation of certain genes during normal development. However in tumours, once SATB1
becomes expressed, it can cause hundreds of genes to change their expression, promoting
tumour growth and metastasis.
At Karolinska Institutet, Dr Kohwi-Shigematsu plans to continue her research into SATB1,
especially to identify any co-factors that help SATB1 cause havoc, and also to find ways of
silencing SATB1 in tumours. The results could potentially lead to novel therapies for the prevention of metastasis and the reversal of tumour growth.
Ilona Koupil
Visiting Professor of Social Epidemiology, especially Children and Adolescents,
at the Department of Public Health Sciences. The appointment is at 0.5 FTE for
three years starting on 1 January 2015. Ilona Koupil’s principal position is
Professor at Stockholm University.
Ilona Koupil is a paediatrician and epidemiologist, specialising in health equity studies and
public health medicine. She is interested in how a person’s health and life path are affected
by their social conditions, health and development during early life and she participates in a
number of research networks that explore these issues.
Ilona Koupil is principal investigator of the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study
where over 14,000 people and their descendants have been followed for up to 100 years. This
rich material has been used to investigate how health inequalities arise and are perpetuated
across generations. The research has the potential to guide future policy interventions and
thereby contribute to both improved health and health equity.
Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology is another of Ilona Koupil’s research interests and
she has been a consultant to many collaborative projects on child health coordinated by WHO
and UNICEF. These worldwide initiatives investigate how the physical, social and cognitive
development at a young age influences the future well-being of children.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
41
VISITING PROFESSOR S
Matti Lehtinen
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Laboratory Medicine.
The appointment is at 0.25 FTE for three years, starting on 1 September 2014.
Matti Lehtinen’s principal position is Professor at the University of Tampere.
Matti Lehtinen’s research focus is on HPV and associated cancers. He was the first to show
that HPV type 16 infection increases the risk of developing cervical cancer twelvefold. He has
been principal investigator of population-based HPV vaccine trials since the start, and introduced HPV vaccination into Finland’s National Immunization Program.
The University of Tampere and Karolinska Institutet have worked together on HPV and
cancer research for 25 years, and the collaboration is highly synergistic. The University of
Tampere has access to samples and results from vaccination studies, while Karolinska Institutet
has facilities for HPV DNA and antibody analyses and expertise in bioinformatics.
Matti Lehtinen is currently investigating different vaccination strategies. Today, young
girls are vaccinated, but if boys were vaccinated too, there might be a greater herd effect and
improved overall protection, approaching eradication. He is also investigating the optimal
screening frequency of those vaccinated against HPV. A reduction in testing could potentially
save Finland up to 25 million euros annually. The results could have an impact on worldwide
vaccination and screening strategies.
Hans Morten Lossius
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Prehospital Emergency Care at the Department of Clinical
Research and Education, Södersjukhuset. The appointment is at 0.2 FTE for three
years, starting on 1 January 2015. Hans Morten Lossius’ principal position is
Professor at the University of Stavanger.
42
Hans Morten Lossius is doing everything in his power to improve the lives of patients from the
very moment that they fall ill or have an accident. His research area is prehospital critical care
and the focus is on how to best staff, train and equip emergency medical teams.
Dr Lossius has extensive experience in the area of emergency and critical care. He is a board
certified specialist in anaesthesiology and intensive care, has worked as a physician on air ambulances throughout Norway and is a professor of pre-hospital critical care at the University of
Stavanger. When he started his career as a medical director on air ambulances, he realised that
there was a severe lack of medical skills and resources in the pre-hospital setting, and that the
patients too often had to wait until they got to hospital before receiving proper treatment.
Dr Lossius has worked relentlessly to get the right competence, training and equipment onto
air ambulances, and to optimize the utilization of this resource. He has been head of research
and development of the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation, while it developed into
Europe’s largest research organisation of pre-hospital emergency and critical care. He is now
Secretary-General of the Foundation.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
VISITING PROFESSOR S
Karl-Johan Malmberg
Visiting Professor of Cellular Imumune Therapy at the Department of Medicine,
Huddinge. The appointment is at 0.25 FTE for three years starting on 1 June 2015.
Karl-Johan Malmberg’s principal position is Professor at the University of Oslo
and Oslo University Hospital.
Karl-Johan Malmberg’s research focus is on the development of new cell therapies against
cancer. The cancer therapies are based on insights into the function and regulation of natural
killer (NK) cells. These cells are part of the nonspecific immune system and mount a rapid,
destructive response against viruses and tumours. NK cells are controlled by a number of
receptors that can either activate or inhibit their actions. Dr Malmberg’s research group has
established new principles for the expression of these receptors and their impact on NK cell
function.
At Karolinska Institutet, Dr Malmberg´s group aims to design the next generation NK cell
therapy against cancer. Immune cells will be taken from healthy donors and specific subsets of
NK cells will be selected and modified in order to cure cancer in patients who do not respond
to currently available therapies.
Cancer immunotherapy is a rapidly developing field with remarkable clinical success in
recent years. Karl-Johan Malmberg is the co-director of the Department of Cancer Immunology and his affiliation to KI will foster a new Nordic initiative in the area of cell-based cancer
immunotherapy.
Anders Persson
Visiting Professor of Medical Radiology at the Department of Clinical Science,
Intervention and Technology. The appointment is at 0.2 FTE for three years
starting on 1 September 2014. Anders Persson’s principal position is Professor
at Linköping University.
Anders Persson specialises in medical radiology, a discipline that uses a variety of imaging
techniques to diagnose and treat disease. He is one of the founders of the Centre for Medical
Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) at Linköping University, where he is actively working
towards having academic institutions, industry and the health sector collaborate in the areas of
health and technology.
Anders Persson uses a combination of imaging techniques such as MRI and CT scan to
produce detailed, data-rich 3D images of bodily structures and functions. This is useful in a
number of medical applications, but also in forensic investigations, since the method allows
for non-destructive “virtual autopsies”. For this work, Anders Persson was awarded the prestigious Lennart Nilsson Award for scientific photography in 2008.
The current focus of Ander Persson’s research is to improve the lives of patients. The aim of
one of his projects is to improve the diagnostics of coronary heart disease by using CT scan instead of more invasive methods. He is also working to reduce the amount of radiation patients
get exposed to from various medical imaging technologies.
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43
VISITING PROFESSOR S
Thomas Sakmar
Visiting Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the Department
of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three
years, starting on 1 July 2014. Thomas Sakmar’s principal position is Professor at
the Rockefeller University.
Thomas Sakmar‘s main research area is signal transduction. He studies receptors on the cell
surface in order to understand how cells communicate, how organisms sense their environment and because cell receptors are important targets of therapeutic drugs. For example, by
investigating rhodopsin, a receptor in the eye, Thomas Sakmar and his team at the Rockefeller
University contributed to the understanding of how colour vision works. Furthermore, the
team’s innovative approaches are being used in drug discovery. Their research on how HIV
gains entry into cells has led to a novel class of pharmaceuticals called HIV-entry blockers.
In the Center for Alzheimer Research at Karolinska Institutet, Thomas Sakmar is turning his
research focus to misfolded proteins called amyloid. When amyloid accumulates, it can cause a
number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Thomas Sakmar
will apply a new technology to engineer biological agents to detect the forms of amyloid that
are most toxic to cells and tissues. The aim is to create new biological tools to allow early
detection of disease biomarkers and to treat human diseases related to ageing.
Timo Sorsa
Photo: Private.
Visiting Professor of Periodontics at the Department of Dental Medicine.
The appointment is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 October 2014.
Timo Sorsa’s principal position is Professor at Helsinki University.
44
Timo Sorsa is a clinical specialist in periodontics and dental medicine. His research interests
extend beyond dentistry since there is a strong link between oral inflammation (periodontitis)
and systemic inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
In collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, Timo Sorsa will continue with his main research
interest – to understand the mechanisms underlying oral diseases and related inflammatory
diseases. He is particularly interested in a group of enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases
(MMPs) and their regulation. They play an essential role in normal development but can be
destructive during inflammation since they break down tissue. The research has resulted in
many patented diagnostic tests. One of these, PerioSafe, detects the presence of MMP-8 in oral
fluids. Patients can quickly use this point-of-care test to determine if they have periodontitis.
Timo Sorsa has received a number of prizes for his work in periodontology, including the
Jens Waerhaug prize in 2010 and the Bensow prize in 2012. He has supervised 35 PhD students,
published over 470 peer-reviewed papers and is listed inventor on 12 patents.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
VISITING PROFESSOR S
Peter Svensson
Photo: Jesper Rais.
Visiting Professor of Clinical Oral Physiology at the Department of Dental Medicine.
The position is at 0.25 FTE for three years starting on 1 September 2014.
Peter Svensson’s principal position is Professor at Aarhus University.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Peter Svensson’s main research interests are orofacial pain and jaw function. Even though up
to 10% of the population suffers from facial pain and malfunction of the jaw, there is poor
understanding of the mechanisms underlying these problems.
Peter Svensson’s research group has studied jaw pain using experimental models to determine, for example, how pain spreads over large areas of the face, and how sensory function
and the chewing action changes when you are in pain. Recently, the group also observed that
the brain controls the jaw muscles differently when the muscles are in pain. An important
aspect of Peter Svensson’s research has been the development and standardization of methods
to examine facial sensory function and how these methods can be used as a tool to better
classify and understand pain.
At Karolinska Institutet, Peter Svensson will study how different types of sensory stimuli
shape and influence the expression of pain in humans. He will also do further studies on brain
regulation of jaw function and examine how food is processed from intake to swallowing.
The ultimate goal of the research is to improve efficiency in the treatment and management of
facial pain.
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VISITING PROFESSOR S
46
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
VISITING PROFESSOR S
FOREIGN ADJUNCT PROFESSORS
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
47
VISITING PROFESSOR
FOREIGN
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
S
S
In order to strengthen its international network of contacts, Karolinska Institutet is appointing well-reputed colleagues from abroad
as foreign adjunct professors. Their association with Karolinska Institutet must be one of long-standing international collaboration or
scientific exchange.
A foreign adjunct professor must hold a position or an appointment corresponding to “full professor” at their home university
or elsewhere, and be an internationally leading researcher in his or her field. The term of office normally lasts six years and can be
extended upon review. The appointment does not entail any financial undertakings.
Pak Chung Ho
Foreign Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics and
Gynecology
Home University
University of Hong Kong, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hong Kong
Department at KI
Department of Women’s and Children’s Health
Guido Kroemer
Soumaya Raychadhuri
Foreign Adjunct Professor of Molecular Medicine
Home University
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Department at KI
Department of Medicine, Solna
Steven Rosenberg
Foreign Adjunct Professor of Cell Therapy
Foreign Adjunct Professor of Paediatric Oncology
Home University
NIH, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA
Home University
Université Paris Descartes, Centre de Recherche
des Cordeliers, Paris, France
Department at KI
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Department at KI
Department of Women’s and Children’s Health
Ulf Skoglund
Foreign Adjunct Professor of Structural Cell Biology
Christoph Lange
Foreign Adjunct Professor of Infectious Diseases
Home University
Research Center Borstel – Leibniz Center for
Medicine and Biosciences, Borstel, Germany
Home University
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology,
Structural Cellular Biology Unit, Okinawa, Japan
Department at KI
Department of Microbiology, Tumor
and Cell Biology
Department at KI
Department of Medicine, Solna
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VISITING PROFESSOR S
PRIZES AND AWARDS
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49
PRIZES AND AWARDS
The Grand Silver Medal
The Grand Silver Medal 2015 from Karolinska Institutet is awarded to Gunnel Biberfeld, Britta Wahren and
SGO Johansson in special recognition of the outstanding contributions they have made to medical research
and Karolinska Institutet.
Photo: John Sennett.
Gunnel Biberfeld, professor emerita of infectious disease
control, especially clinical immunology, is awarded the Grand
Silver Medal for her outstanding contribution to research and
doctoral education in the area of HIV at Karolinska Institutet.
She is one of the pioneers in HIV research, at KI and globally.
At a very early stage, she realised the urgent need for research
on HIV, and since the beginning of the HIV pandemic she has
remained active in this area of research. She has fostered a
generation of young HIV researchers at Karolinska Institutet,
of which many are now leaders in the field. Gunnel Biberfeld’s
research into HIV focuses on a global perspective, especially
considering her clinical vaccine studies in Tanzania. The research
collaboration with Tanzania also includes a comprehensive doctoral
program. In addition, Gunnel Biberfeld’s studies on the prevention of HIV
transmission from mother to child in Dar es Salaam, shows the importance
of using antiretroviral therapy during both pregnancy and the postnatal
period. The results of these studies have formed the basis for Tanzania’s
national guidelines for the prevention of HIV transmission from
mother to child, and they have also contributed to WHO’s
recommendations in the area.
S Gunnar O Johansson, professor emeritus of clinical
Photo: Private.
immunology, especially allergology, is awarded the Grand
Silver Medal for his outstanding contribution to the area of
allergy research. He identified, in 1967, together with Hans
Bennich, a new class of immunoglobulins, IgE, and showed that
these are associated with allergic responses. He has established
and grown the research area of allergy at Karolinska Institutet, and his
successful research has contributed to making Karolinska Institutet into a
world leader in the area. SGO Johansson’s groundbreaking discovery of IgE and the
development of allergy tests have improved the health and quality of life for a large
proportion of the worldwide population.
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FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PRIZES AND AWARDS
control, especially clinical virology, is awarded the Grand
Silver Medal for her outstanding contribution to research
and doctoral education in the area of HIV and cancer
research at Karolinska Institutet. Britta Wahren is one of
the pioneers in HIV research and particularly in designing HIV vaccines, at KI and globally. At a very early stage,
she realised the urgent need for research on immune
responses and protection against HIV. She has fostered a
generation of young researchers at Karolinska Institutet,
of which many are now leaders in the field. Britta Wahren
was the first person in the world to show that a genetic
vaccine that expresses early genes/antigens of HIV could
induce new cell mediated responses to HIV in already
infected individuals. These finding were taken forward to
perform experimental and clinical HIV vaccine studies
against the many types of HIV that prevail in the world.
She designed novel genetic HIV vaccines that induce
cell-mediated and humoral immunity of prolonged
nature in healthy individuals. Together with the National
Institutes of Health and the US Army, a new prime-boost
vaccine schedule has been proposed for prophylactic
vaccination against HIV. Britta Wahren´s focus has been
on translational research, from molecular studies of HIV,
tumour viral immunogens and immune responses to the
development of novel vaccine prototypes to HIV.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Photo: Fredrik Persson.
Britta Wahren, professor emerita of infectious disease
51
PRIZES AND AWARDS
Photo: Gunilla Sonnebring.
The Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize
is awarded to Miriam Elfström
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation
was founded in 1992 and since 1996
the Foundation has a collaboration
with 23 partner universities, including
Karolinska Institutet. The subject
area ‘medical science’ focuses on
new PhD holders or doctoral students who are in the final phase of
their doctoral work. The candidates
should not be above 30 years of age
during their public defence.
Miriam Elfström, previously a doctoral student at the Department of Medical
Epidemiology and Biostatistics, has received the Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize for
2015 for her dissertation Optimizing cervical cancer prevention through screening
and HPV vaccination.
In her thesis she describes, among other things, the long term efficacy of different screening strategies and the long term risks associated with HPV infection, the quality of different
screening programmes and their organization, as well as the efficacy of different vaccination
strategies. The aim of the research is to maximize the benefit of prevention initiatives in
Sweden and Europe.
As a doctoral student Miriam Elfström was the first author of an article in the British
Medical Journal and co-author of an article in the Lancet. After her doctoral studies, Miriam
Elfström is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at
Karolinska Institutet and process leader for cancer prevention at the Regional Cancer Centre
Stockholm-Gotland region.
The Eric K Fernström Prize
is awarded to Sten Linnarsson
Sten Linnarsson, professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics has been awarded the Eric K Fernström Prize for 2015. He is receiving the
prize for establishing himself as an internationally leading researcher within the
area single cell analysis, where he contributed with both publicized work focusing
on methods and with studies where this technology has been used for investigations which have resulted in breakthrough biological findings.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Eric K. Fernström Foundation
was established in 1978 and
annually awards a Nordic prize
and six prizes to young and particularly promising researchers
who have made outstanding
contributions to medical science.
Each medical faculty of the country
elects its prize-winner.
52
Sten Linnarsson was the first to sequence RNA from individual somatic cells and he also
introduced so-called ‘molecular barcodes’ which allow observation of each RNA molecule
in individual cells. Work within neurobiology and cancer research is particularly highlighted
among Linnarsson’s biological studies.
Sten Linnarsson and his group recently published an article in the scientific journal Science,
where they used single cell analysis to make a detailed map of cell types in the cerebral cortex
and which genes are active in the different cells. It is the first time the analysis method was
used on a large scale in such a complex tissue. Researchers investigated approximately three
thousand cells – one at a time – and could, among other things, identify a number of completely unknown types of cells.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PRIZES AND AWARDS
The Håkan Mogren Prize
is awarded to Elisabet Lidbrink
Elisabet Lidbrink, oncology consultant at Karolinska University Hospital, is
awarded the prize for her strong commitment to women with breast cancer,
and for her support of younger colleagues. She sets an example with her
humane patient approach.
Elisabet Lidbrink has 30 years’ experience as an oncologist. During this time, she has been
relentless in her efforts to ensure that women with breast cancer receive the best care and
treatment possible, and that they are treated with dignity and empathy.
The doctor-patient relationship is an important part of the caring process. Elisabet Lidbrink
often receives the most difficult cases, those whose treatments have failed and whose cancer
has spread to other organs. In the midst of sadness and despair, Elisabet Lidbrink manages to
find hope and to share it with her patients. Her commitment is that every patient will receive
the best care and treatment available and that when all options are exhausted, the patient’s
remaining days will be as healthy as possible.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Håkan Mogren Foundation was
established in 2012. Its dual purpose
is to promote education and research
within the medical field and to promote the education and training of
classical musicians, particularly singers.
Within the medical field, the purpose
of the prize is as follows: to provide the
opportunity for well-qualified, scientifically competent and clinically active
physicians to improve themselves
professionally, or to carry out research
in a particular field of interest to them.
The Karolinska Institutet Ethics Prize
is awarded to Lena Marions
Photo: Private.
Lena Marions, lecturer and associate professor at the Department of Clinical
Research and Education, Södersjukhuset, and course director for medical
students in semester 10 on the course in reproduction and development.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Ethics Prize is awarded annually
to a person or group active at
Karolinska Institutet that has made
a special effort to promote medical
ethics at the university. The purpose
of the prize is to enhance ethical
awareness and draw attention to
praiseworthy examples of ethics
amongst staff and researchers at KI.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
Lena Marions is awarded the prize because she integrates the subject of medical ethics in
teaching in a clinical setting in an exemplary manner. This applies particularly to the integration of the subject of medical ethics in subjects such as prenatal diagnosis and clinical
genetics, but also in gynaecology as such. The integrated education functions as a model for
how education in medical ethics can be carried out.
Lena Marions has also demonstrated moral courage in connection with the prescription of
contraception and has defended young women’s rights in this context without the involvement
of other actors.
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PRIZES AND AWARDS
Karolinska Institutet’s Pedagogical Prize
is awarded to Rune Brautaset
Photo: Private.
Rune Brautaset is docent, programme director for the study programme in
optometry and head of the optometry unit at the Department of Clinical
Neuroscience.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The prize is awarded annually to
individual teachers, teacher teams
or administrative personnel who
have conducted good pedagogical
initiatives comprising of pedagogical
development or renewal work
within KI’s programmes at first cycle,
second cycle as well as postgraduate
studies. The prize-winners are chosen
by the Board of Higher Education
following suggestions from a special
prize committee.
He has worked at KI since 2000 and during this period has developed optometry as a research
subject. As programme director Rune Brautaset has managed the work on developing and implementing more clinically-oriented education which started in 2007. As a part of this work, a
laboratory for clinical education was established. The laboratory has resulted in more efficient
education and a greater number of clinical education components.
As programme director he has also developed teaching materials, new online types of
instruction, methods for integrating the gender and diversity perspective as well as sustainable
development in the education.
Furthermore, Rune Brautaset has also successfully worked with quality and research links of
education by developing a Master programme in clinical optometry which was set up in 2008.
He has also created a doctoral studies model which has resulted in that a large share of KI’s
optometric teaching staff has been given the opportunity to pursue doctoral studies. This has
led to research-linked optometric education at the highest European level.
Photo: Private.
The Malin and Lennart Philipson Prize
is awarded to Erik Norberg
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Malin and Lennart Philipson
Foundation awards a prize and grant
for molecular biomedical research
with the aim to help young, promising
scientists to establish an independent
research group after their postdoc
training. Apart from the researcher’s
scientific merits, the award also
re-cognises the ability as a leader to
establish a strong research group.
54
Erik Norberg, assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, is
awarded the prize for his interesting and creative studies of alternations in the
metabolism in cancer cells. The results may open new possibilities for cancer
diagnostics as well as for future treatment of cancer.
During his postdoctoral work, Erik Norberg’s research had a central focus on Diffuse Large
B Cell Lymphomas (DLBCLs), which are aggressive tumours with both genetic and clinical
variability. He could demonstrate that this tumour type, consist of multiple metabolic subgroups, that rely on distinct survival signaling. In particular, metabolic subsets where certain
subtypes is dependent on fatty acid oxidation, a powerful antioxidant capacity and increased
mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, other DLBCL subsets is more dependent on glucose
catabolism for energy production and generate more lactate.
These breakthrough findings indicate that unique metabolic programs are activated in
specific subsets of DLBCLs that confers growth and survival signaling. The study highlights
the metabolic heterogeneity that can exist even within a single tumour type that initially
shares the same diagnosis.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
PRIZES AND AWARDS
Photo: Waja Wegner.
Lennart Nilsson Award
is awarded to Katrin Willig
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The Lennart Nilsson Award is the
world’s top accolade in scientific
and medical photography. The
award was inaugurated in 1998
in honour of Swedish medical
photographer Lennart Nilsson, who
achieved worldwide recognition
for his images. The prize is awarded
each year to individuals who make
an outstanding contribution to
scientific photography “in the spirit
of Lennart Nilsson”.
Dr. Katrin Willig, junior research group leader at the Center for Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CNMPB) with affiliation at the Max
Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, Germany, is the recipient
of the Lennart Nilsson Award for her groundbreaking contribution to the superresolution microscopy of living cells. In her research she uses technology for
studying cell structures at nanoscale to understand how our brains work.
Fluorescent light microscopy was long inhibited by the limited resolution caused by the light’s
wavelength. The technology was revolutionised twenty years ago with the development of
Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED), which enabled researchers to study living cells in
tiniest molecular detail. The method involves using a laser beam to illuminate fluorescent
molecules while a second customised laser beam deactivates parts of the fluorescence, leaving
only a nano-sized area at the focal point that emits a signal. STED is one of the technologies
collectively known as super-resolution microscopy. In 2014 Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and
William E. Moerner shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing super-resolution
fluorescence microscopy.
This year’s recipient of the Lennart Nilsson Award, Katrin Willig, pioneered the use of fluorescent proteins for the nanoscale imaging of living cells. She has developed STED microscopy
for imaging tissue inside living organs, known as deep tissue imaging, and her special area of
interest is the processes in the contact points between the nerve cells that are known as the
synapses. She has demonstrated the strength of these technologies by in vivo-imaging inside a
living mouse brain the tiny protrusions (dendritic spines) on the nerve cell dendrites found in
the synapses, which are believed to be the basis of memory in the brain.
Katrin Willig studied Physics
at Würzburg University before
joining Stefan W. Hell’s research
team at the Max Planck Institute
for Biophysical Chemistry in
Göttingen. She graduated with
a PhD in 2006 with a thesis on
STED microscopy. Since 2014
she has been leading her own
research team at the Göttingen
Cluster of Excellence and DFG
Research Center for Nanoscale
Microscopy and Molecular
Physiology of the Brain
(CNMPB) at the Max Planck
Institute of Experimental
Medicine in Göttingen.
The actin cytoskeleton of a neuron is highlighted with a
fluorescent protein and imaged with superresolution STED
microscopy in the visual cortex of a living mouse.
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
55
PRIZES AND AWARDS
Photo: Private.
The Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg Prize
is awarded to Robert Månsson and
Emma Andersson
The Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg prize in medicine is awarded to
Robert Månsson, assistant professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine,
and Emma Andersson, senior researcher at the Department of Biosciences
and Nutrition.
Robert Månsson is awarded the prize for his work concerning early haematopoiesis and
three-dimensional genomic architecture, and the relationship between this higher order
genomic organization of genes and transcriptional regulation. He is particularly interested in
genes that are involved in the development of blood cells. The overall aim of his work is to gain
a greater understanding of normal blood cell development why some genetic mutations cause
blood cancers.
Photo: Linda Lindell.
Emma Andersson is awarded the prize for her work concerning how the Wnt and Notch
signalling pathways control differentiation and morphogenesis during embryonic development. It is important to gain an understanding of these signalling pathways, since a range of
diseases can arise when they do not function properly during development. Dr Andersson is
doing important research into Alagille syndrome, a genetic disorder that arises in early childhood and affects the liver, heart and kidney.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The purpose of the Sven and EbbaChristina Hagberg Foundation is
to stimulate and foster scientific
research within the medical and
biochemical fields respectively.
The Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg
Prize awards a personal prize and
research funding to especially
outstanding junior researchers at
Karolinska Institutet.
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PRIZES AND AWARDS
From cell to society
2015
Text Professors: Anders Nilsson (Translations: Neil Betteridge) | Text Adjunct and Visiting Professors: Jenny Tollet
Editor: Jenny Hermansson, Communications and Public Relations Office
Portraits (unless otherwise stated): Bildmakarna | Cover photos: Erik Cronberg
Design: Sofia Lindberg, Communications and Public Relations Office
Print: E-print 2015 | ISBN: 978-91-85681-74-7
FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2015
57
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