From cell to society 2016 by Karolinska Institutet

From cell to society

2016

KIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW PROFESSORS ON THEIR RESEARCH MEET THE PRIZEWINNERS

COVER PHOTO Andrea Strandberg, research assistant at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, with equipment that is used to measure eye movement at the Marianne Bernadotte Centrum at St. Erik Eye Hospital. Photo: Erik Cronberg

From cell to society

2016

Contents FOREWORD Karin Dahlman-Wright Acting Vice-Chancellor

PROFESSORS Ganesh Acharya Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Adnane Achour Professor of Molecular Immunology

Maria Albin Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Georgios Belibasakis Professor of Clinical Oral Infection Biology

Martin Bergö Professor of Molecular Medicine

Nagihan Bostanci Professor of Inflammation Research specialising in Periodontics

Sophie Erhardt Professor of Experimental Psychiatry

Malin Flodström Tullberg Professor of Diabetes type 1

Anna Färnert Professor of Infection Medicine specialising in Tropical Medicine

Tomas Jernberg Professor of Epidemiology

Kristina Johnell Professor of Geriatric Pharmacoepidemiology

Mikael Karlsson Professor of Immunology

Sonia Lain Professor of Molecular Cancer Pharmacology

Sir David Lane Professor of Tumour Supressor Biology

Knut Lönnroth Professor of Social Medicine

Per-Arne Lönnqvist Professor of Paediatric Anaesthesia and Intensive Care

Rickard Sandberg Professor of Molecular Genetics

Anna-Karin Wikström Professor of Obstetrics

Ulrika Ådén Professor of Neonatology

Annika Östman Wernerson Professor of Renal and Transplantation Science

PROFESSORIAL CHAIR Miia Kivipelto

ADJUNCT PROFESSORS Maria Teresa Bejarano

Frieder Braunschweig

Anca Catrina

Annika Tibell

Tomas Wester

VISITING PROFESSORS Lars Fugger

Mika Gissler

Eystein Sverre Husebye

Matti Hämäläinen

Veikko Jousmäki

Henrik Larsson

Outi Mäkitie

Robert Oostenveld

Lennart Svensson

Unnur Valdimarsdóttir

Riitta Veijola

Per Wester

Cecilia Williams

Biao Xu

FOREIGN ADJUNCT PROFESSORS

PRIZES AND AWARDS The Grand Silver Medal

The Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize

The Eric K. Fernström Prize

The Dr Axel Hirsch Prize

The Håkan Mogren Prize

Karolinska Institutet’s Pedagogical Prize

Lennart Nilsson Award

The Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education

It is with much pride and joy that I congratulate our new professors reaching the highest academic position at Karolinska Institutet. You are individuals of excellent scientific and pedagogic merit, with great potential as leaders, and with innovative minds and intellectual courage. Karolinska Institutet is a leading medical university and Scandinaviaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest centre for academic education and research in the medical field, and as such we naturally take an active part in tackling the enormous challenges facing healthcare. Some of them are familiar to us. It is very likely that we will be challenged by hitherto unknown infection diseases that require new insights and other drugs than those currently available. We also know that the population is getting older, a demographic shift that will put considerable strain on the healthcare services and necessitate a more focused approach to geriatric research. You are the ones who will be taking on these and other medical science challenges. Along with the other 370 professors working at our university, you possess unique competence in medical research that is as broad as it is pioneering. Karolinska Institutet operates at the heart of the community and engages in dynamic interactions of mutual benefit to all involved. The public and private sectors enable us to broaden our competence through the recruitment of adjunct professors. This year, we are also pleased to welcome many visiting professors, as they bring valuable experiences from other universities in Sweden and elsewhere. In this, the twenty-first issue of From Cell to Society we present all our new professors, adjunct professors, visiting professors and foreign adjunct professors, as well as people who have been awarded prizes for their services to Karolinska Institutet and medical science. Our special jubilee medal, the Grand Silver Medal, established to commemorate KIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bicentenary in 2010, is awarded for outstanding contributions to Karolinska Institutet. What unites every professor, prize winner and everyone else involved in medical science is that we are all, regardless of discipline, striving towards the same goal: the improvement of human lives and health. I wish you all happiness and success in your new assignments.

Stockholm, October 2016

Karin Dahlman-Wright Acting Vice-Chancellor Karolinska Institutet

Photo: Erik Cronberg.

Foreword

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S

PROFESSORS

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The placenta is a key to understanding disease Ganesh Acharya researches the cardiovascular system of pregnant women and their unborn babies. His research is both clinical and experimental, and aims to increase knowledge about the physiology of pregnancy and to develop methods for the clinical use of new ultrasound technology.

Ganesh Acharya’s research concerns understanding the function of the heart and blood system of fetuses and pregnant women. One important aspect of his research, which is both clinical and experimental, is the clinical application of the latest ultrasound imaging techniques during maternity care and other aspects of childbirth. “We know that the cardiovascular system changes a lot during pregnancy, but we still know little about how this happens,” says Professor Acharya. “We know even less about the heart and circulatory system of the fetus, since they are so hard to study. However, if we’re to understand diseases and develop effective treatments, we need to learn more about fetal physiology.” The conditions and complications that interest Professor Acharya include intrauterine growth restriction and preeclampsia. Key to this is understanding the function of the placenta. “The placenta is the key to so much. It’s a temporary organ that has to do the work of many other organs and is therefore important in the event of disease. You can develop preeclampsia without a fetus, but not without a placenta.”

In one project, Professor Acharya is working alongside researchers at KI and the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, to develop new tools for monitoring heart function in the fetus. “Monitoring the baby’s pulse gives some information but not all. The more precise we are in judging a situation, the better we are at making the right decisions while taking care of the pregnant women during labour and delivery: are the mother and the baby doing well or do we have to deliver immediately? The diagnostic methods we develop must be simple to use and give immediate readings. During childbirth, when an emergency situation arises, there’s no time to lose.”

Ganesh Acharya Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology

Ganesh Acharya was born in western Nepal in 1960. He trained as a doctor in what is now Ukraine, graduating in 1987. In 1988–1994 he worked at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, were he began his specialist training in gynaecology and obstetrics. He then continued his training in the UK, where he worked until 2001. Ganesh Acharya was a clinician and researcher at the University

Hospital of North Norway and the University of Tromsø, where he was appointed professor in 2008. He was appointed visiting professor at KI in 2012. Ganesh Acharya was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position of consultant at Karolinska University Hospital on 1 January 2016.

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PROFESSOR S

Mapping the three dimensional structure of proteins To understand the interaction between virulent organisms and the immune system, we need to know what the proteins involved actually look like – that is, what three-dimensional structures they have. This is the objective of Adnane Achour’s research, his main objects of interest being the immune system’s T cells and the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Adnane Achour examines and visualises proteins that are important in infection diseases and cancer and the immunological responses to them. Using radiocrystallography and biophysical techniques, he maps the three dimensional structures of proteins down to atomic level and their interactions. “My research group mainly does curiosity-driven basic research, including on the structures of T cell receptors,” says Professor Adnane Achour. “We have established a new way of reinforcing the T-cell response to infections and certain strains of cancer. Virus cells and cancer cells can deceive the immune system by altering their peptides, and we’ve discovered a way of preventing that using manipulated peptides that increase T-cell activation. The principle could be turned into a new form of treatment and the first tests on mice with cancer are promising. But there’s a long way to go before we get to clinical trials.”

Another focus of Professor Achour’s research is the invasion mechanisms of Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is a common cause of pneumonia and meningitis. “One thing we’re looking into is how the bacterium uses different proteins to colonise surfaces and create biofilms, and to avoid immunological recognition.” One of the group’s strengths, according to Professor Achour, is that much of its research is done in collaboration with clinical researchers specialising in each respective disease.

Adnane Achour Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Department of Medicine, Solna

Adnane Achour was born in Morocco in 1967 and grew up in Montpellier, France. He graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1994, after which he enrolled at KI, where he earned his PhD in 2001. For the following two years he was a postdoc at KI with funding from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. In 2003 he became group leader at the Centre for Infectious Medicine, Huddinge.

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Achour became a docent in 2007, and in 2008 was made a special senior researcher by the Swedish Research Council. He has been researching at the Department of Medicine, Solna, since 2012, and was made head of SciLifeLab’s platform for mass cytometry in 2013. Adnane Achour was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 August 2015.

PROFESSOR S

Researching the nature of work and sustainable employment Maria Albin researches how the environments in which we work and live affect our health. She is particularly interested in issues relating to sustainability – what work content and employment conditions are needed for people to continue enjoying what they do.

While, on average, we are living longer and enjoying more years of health, rising levels of health are unevenly distributed in society. Those benefitting most are socio-economically strong, well-educated groups with money. “For women with only a basic education, there’s almost no visible change at all,” says Professor Albin. “We’re seeing growing health inequality in society.” Professor Albin researches what causes this gap and how it can be closed. One key aspect of this is how the content and conditions of people’s jobs can be changed to prevent exhaustion and overwork. “We need a pension system that doesn’t create conflicts between staying healthy and earning a living, and we have to be able to change our work tasks as we grow older, particularly in physically or mentally demanding jobs,” she says. In one project, Maria Albin’s team have interviewed older people at work and their managers. Both parties are generally very positive. Those working after the age of 65 say they decided

to do so because they feel that they are doing something useful and contributing to society. Their managers, for their part, praise their experience and competence, and say that they help to create a pleasant workplace atmosphere. Maria Albin also researches environmental factors outside the workplace, including how we are affected by our proximity to “blue” factors, that is to say rivers, lakes and the sea. One issue that interests her is knowledge dissemination and dialogue with the community. She is also a member of the government’s Commission for Equity in Health.

Maria Albin Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Institute of Environmental Medicine Maria Albin was born in Stockholm in 1953. She studied medicine and economic history at Lund University, graduating with a medical degree in 1981. In 1987 she became a specialist in occupational medicine, and in 1993 in occupational and environmental medicine. As a clinician she has primarily been active at Lund University Hospital/Skåne University Hospital since 1984.

Maria Albin earned her PhD from Lund University in 1992, becoming a docent in 1999. She is currently on leave of absence from her combined position of researcher and consultant in Lund. Maria Albin was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 15 October 2015.

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PROFESSOR S

Studying oral disease in the laboratory with biofilm models Georgios Belibasakis researches the bacterial ecosystem of the mouth and how it can thrive in symbiosis with its host – or cause diseases such as caries, periodontitis and peri-implantitis. Belibasakis’ main research tools involve models in which he examines how different bacteria work together to form biofilms and interact with the host.

Our mouths are ecosystems in which different microorganisms interact with each other – and with us. Georgios Belibasakis studies how this interaction takes place and what happens when changes in this ecosystem start to damage the teeth and gums. “Diseases like caries and periodontitis are normally caused by the same bacteria we’ve always had in our mouths in low numbers and that, until then, we’ve lived in symbiosis with,” says Professor Belibasakis. When oral bacteria have a chance to grow on the tooth surface, they form complex communities called biofilms. To study the process of biofilm formation and role in disease, Professor Belibasakis utilizes three-dimensional biofilm models. These models enables him to monitor how different bacteria cooperate within the biofilm, and how this interacts with dental or periodontal tissues, to instigate disease. “We can see how the bacteria adopt different roles in the biofilm, and some species seem to control the behaviour of others. We’ve also developed these models in co-culture with different

host tissues, and from their interaction we can deduce how the biofilms affect the tissue to cause disease.” Professor Belibasakis hopes that his research will lead to new methods of diagnosis and treatment. “We know so much more today, but this knowledge has not yet led to the development of methods to prevent and treat dental caries or periodontal disease. There is much to do here. Early diagnosis is also important – the earlier the problems are caught the less damage caused.”

Georgios Belibasakis Professor of Clinical Oral Infection Biology at the Department of Dental Medicine Georgios Belibasakis was born in 1976 in Thessaloniki, Greece. After studying dentistry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he earned his PhD at Umeå University in 2004. Belibasakis was a postdoc at King’s College London Dental Institute in 2005 and subsequently a lecturer at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London from 2005 to 2009.

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In 2009–2016 he researched at the University of Zürich, Switzerland, where he was made section manager in 2011 and professor of oral microbiology and immunology in 2014. Georgios Belibasakis was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 July 2016.

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Surprising discoveries on CAAX proteins Martin Bergö’s research on CAAX proteins has proved relevant to several diseases, such as cancer, rheumatism, cardiovascular disease and accelerated ageing. His discovery that antioxidants accelerate growth of existing tumours resonated across the globe in 2015.

Every cell in our bodies contains so-called CAAX proteins, which are needed for the cell to function and divide. Martin Bergö researches the details of CAAX protein formation, and how the manipulation of this process could be used to treat disease. “Our main interests are cancer, accelerated ageing, inflammation, and heart disease” says Professor Bergö. After several unexpected discoveries, his research now follows a number of different lines of inquiry. The latest was the news that antioxidants, generally known for their ability to prevent cancer, actually fuel tumour growth and metastasis once the disease is established. The finding received considerable media attention around the world in the spring of 2014 and autumn of 2015. “We’ve shown that antioxidants worsen both lung cancer and malignant melanoma in mice,” says Professor Bergö. “The explanation is simple: antioxidants are good for all cells, including cancerous ones. After our articles, similar results have been published by many different research groups, and the results provide ideas for new strategies to target cancer cells.”

Another surprising discovery was made when Professor Bergö disabled an enzyme in order to define its function, and later found that he had created a mouse model of progeria – accelerated ageing. “This has helped us understand more about progeria in humans, and led to a new potential therapy, which in experiments on mice has looked promising,” he says. “While it is not a cure as such, it markedly slows down the progression of the disease.” Professor Bergö is now establishing a new research environment at KI, and will continue for a transitional period to lead his research group at Gothenburg University’s Sahlgrenska Academy.

Martin Bergö Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition Martin Bergö was born in 1970 in Värnamo. After molecular biology and medicine studies, he earned his PhD in 1998 at Umeå University. He then spent five years at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, USA, initially as a postdoc (1999–2002) and then as an employed researcher (2002–2004). Martin Bergö has been a researcher at Gothenburg University’s Sahlgrenska Academy since 2004. He was awarded an ERC Starting

Grant in 2007; the Erik K Fernström Prize for junior researchers in 2008; the Göran Gustafsson Prize in medicine in 2012; and a project grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in 2015. He was made docent in 2005 and professor in 2010. Martin Bergö was offered a professorship at Karolinska Institutet starting on 1 October 2015.

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PROFESSOR S

Seeking simple methods for the early detection of periodontitis Nagihan Bostanci builds three-dimensional model of gums in order to understand how mild gum inflammation can advance to periodontitis (tooth loss). She hopes that her research will help to bring about new, improved diagnostic and prognostic methods.

Nagihan Bostanci researches the causes of gum inflammation and why it can advance. The milder form of gum inflammation, gingivitis, improves with oral hygiene, but if left untreated can become chronic and lead to periodontitis. “Inflammation is the body’s way of defending itself against bacteria, but if the inflammation is prolonged it can become harmful instead of beneficial,” says Professor Bostanci. “It then becomes the motor driving the disease. My research is about understanding this transition better.” Professor Bostanci examines the severe form of gum inflammation, periodontitis, in experiments where she has cultivated human cells in three-dimensional models of gums. “The models which we’ve developed enable us to study in detail the encounter of the host with the responsible oral bacteria, how the inflammation establishes and progresses, and which proteins are involved” she says. “New proteomic methods help us analyse the results.”

Professor Bostanci hopes that her research will lead to new biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis of periodontal disease. “Periodontitis develops slowly and silently. I would like my work to contribute to simple methods of early detection and possibly prevention.” Another theme that interests Professor Bostanci is the importance of oral health for a person’s general health, where she considers that periodontal inflammation is a possible link. “I will be keen to follow this line of research at KI as there are ample opportunities to collaborate across disciplines” she says.

Nagihan Bostanci Professor of Inflammation Research, specialising in Periodontics at the Department of Dental Medicine Nagihan Bostanci was born in 1976 in Biga in western Turkey. She graduated as a dentist in 1999 at Ege University, Izmir, earning her PhD in periodontology from the University of London in 2007. She then worked at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London until 2008, when she transferred to the Eastman Dental Institute at University College

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London until 2009. From then until 2016 she researched and taught at the Centre of Dental Medicine, University of Zürich, Switzerland, where she became docent in 2013. Nagihan Bostanci was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 July 2016.

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Identifying biological mechanisms behind mental illness Sophie Erhardt researches biological mechanisms behind mental illness. With her discovery that patients with schizophrenia have elevated levels of kynurenic acid in the brain, she has laid the foundations of a scientific field that has attracted a great many research groups around the world.

Sophie Erhardt’s aim is to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness by identifying the biological mechanisms behind diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and depression as well as symptoms such as suicidal thoughts. “Current practice is to diagnose mental illness wholly on the basis of the patient’s own narrative and behaviour – this is difficult to do and we know it can be misleading,” says Professor Erhardt. “Just imagine if simple blood tests could help doctors assess things like the risk of suicide!” In the summer of 2016, Professor Erhardt and her colleagues in Sweden, the USA and Australia published a discovery that could bring them a step closer to this ambition. The paper revealed a clear correlation between the risk of suicide and levels of two substances in the blood. The dominant focus of Professor Erhardt’s research is, however, the link between schizophrenia and elevated levels of kynurenic acid in the brain – something that she started to study as a doctoral student. Back then, the question interested only a handful of

scientists, but her discoveries have attracted a great many other research groups around the world to the field. “Our and other groups’ research has now shown that a causal relationship is very likely, and the field has attracted the attention of drugs companies,” she says. “Inhibitors of the synthesis of kynurenic acid have given promising results in animal studies.” Professor Erhardt herself will be devoting much of her own research to the underlying causes of raised kynurenic acid levels. “We’ve found very interesting links with immunological activation,” she says.

Sophie Erhardt Professor of Experimental Psychiatry at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Sophie Erhardt was born in 1972 on Lidingö, Stockholm. She studied chemistry at Stockholm University, graduating in 2000. She earned her PhD in pharmacology in 2001, and from then until 2005 she was a postdoc at KI, with the exception of the first half of 2002, which she spent at the University of California, San Diego. Since then she has continued to research at KI, often with grants

from the Swedish Research Council: as research associate (2005– 2010) and as special senior researcher (2010–2016). She was appointed docent in 2006. Sophie Erhardt was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 June 2016.

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PROFESSOR S

The aim: to understand the pathogenic mechanisms of type 1 diabetes The idea that type 1 diabetes is caused by a virus is an old hypothesis that has recently been revived. Malin Flodström Tullberg researches on the link between enteroviruses and type 1 diabetes. She also hopes to be able to contribute to a new enterovirus vaccine.

Malin Flodström Tullberg researches type 1 diabetes and an important focus is its association with a family of virus called enteroviruses. “According to several studies, many cases of type 1 diabetes seem to have been preceded by enterovirus infections,” says Professor Flodström Tullberg. “The idea that diabetes can be triggered by an infection is an old one, but one that these studies have now brought back to the fore.” Professor Flodström Tullberg’s research group studies how the immune system normally combats enteroviruses, which are commonly found in the body, and what happens when the virus manages to infect insulin-producing cells. Their aim is to understand the pathogenic mechanisms of type 1 diabetes – knowledge that can contribute to the development of preventative treatments. She is also involved in the development of new enterovirus vaccines with researchers at the University of Tampere. “Enteroviruses rarely change, which gives us a crucial edge in the development of a vaccine,” says Professor Flodström Tullberg.

“On the other hand, there are many variants of the virus, which presents a challenge”. The knowledge can help scientists to understand other diseases caused by enteroviruses, such as inflammation of the cardiac muscle, meninges, pancreas and liver. Another line of research being pursued by Professor Flodström Tullberg concerns cystic fibrosis (CF), which, like type 1 diabetes, is linked to the pancreas and the immune system. “We and our colleagues in Lund have discovered, for instance, that the ion channel that is mutated in CF can also be found in the insulin-producing cells,” she says. “Another thing we’ll be studying is immune system changes in CF.”

Malin Flodström Tullberg Professor of Diabetes type 1 at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge Malin Flodström Tullberg was born in Västerås in 1971. After studying medical science at Uppsala University, she went on to do a doctorate at the same institution, conducting part of her studies as a visiting researcher at Vrije University in Brussels, Belgium. Malin Flodström Tullberg earned her PhD in 1998, after which she spent the next five years doing postdoc research at the Scripps

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Research Institute, La Jolla, USA. She then transferred in 2003 to KI, where she was made docent in 2005. She was made visiting professor at the University of Tampere in 2015. Malin Flodström Tullberg was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 September 2015.

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Acquisition and maintenance of immunity to malaria Anna Färnert researches malaria, above all how the immune system’s response to the disease is affected by different factors. She has shown, for example, that immunity disappears much more quickly than previously thought and that repeated infections by different strains are important for the immune system to protect against the disease.

In areas where malaria transmission is high, older children and adults are largely immune to the disease. Anna Färnert studies how this immunity is acquired and maintained. Her research improves understanding of what a vaccine has to contain and how often it has to be given to be effective. Professor Färnert’s group has shown that exposure to several strains of the malaria parasite gives rise to a broader immune response and thus better protection against the disease. “Those with the best immunity have low levels of the parasite in their blood, and often multiple strains,” says Professor Färnert. “This suggests that the presence of the parasite keeps the immune system active.” By studying immunity in people who have emigrated from malaria-affected areas, Professor Färnert has been able to demonstrate that protection against severe malaria does not last a lifetime, as previously thought, but degrades as time passes. “Malaria patients of African origin who have lived for more

than 15 years in Sweden are just as likely to develop severe symptoms as those who were born in Sweden,” she says. However, her research also shows that an immunological memory to certain antigens of the parasite is highly persistent, even in people who have only been infected once. Her research now focuses on identifying which factors are needed to obtain and maintain protection against the disease. Professor Färnert’s group is also studying the epidemiology of malaria and different strains, how repeated and chronic malaria infections affect the body and biological ageing, and how other diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, as well as management and treatment influence the risks associated with malaria.

Anna Färnert Professor of Infection Medicine, specialising in Tropical Medicine, at the Department of Medicine, Solna Anna Färnert was born in Stockholm in 1966. She studied medicine at KI, earning her degree in 1994 and her PhD in 2000. From 2003 to 2005 she was a postdoc at the Kenya Medical Research InstituteWellcome Trust Collaborative Programme in Kilifi, Kenya. As a clinician, Anna Färnert works at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Karolinska University Hospital. She became a specialist

in 2011 and head of the Unit of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine Solna, KI in 2015. Anna Färnert was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position as specialist at Karolinska University Hospital on 1 December 2015.

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Registry research on understudied heart attack patients Tomas Jernberg researches differences between groups of heart attack patients and is particularly interested in those with reduced kidney function – a group that has a worse prognosis and that has been particularly neglected by science.

Some 27,000 heart attacks occur in Sweden every year, the sufferers being a highly disparate group of patients with different needs and different degrees of risk for future attacks. Professor Jernberg is seeking to characterise sub-groups of cardiovascular patients so that they can be given more personalised treatment. “One group that I’ve devoted a lot of time to is the heart patients with reduced kidney function,” he says. “They make up 40 per cent of all heart attacks and have a much worse prognosis than others. They are also understudied since they are often excluded from clinical studies.” In recent years, Professor Jernberg has also taken an interest in the underlying mechanisms behind cardiovascular disease and its risk markers. One of his goals is to identify new biomarkers for a greatly increased risk of heart attack. Professor Jernberg bases his research on large registries. He is chair of the National Quality Registry for Enhancement and Development of Evidence-Based Care in Heart Disease (Swedeheart)

and leads the Stockholm section of the SCAPIS study, in which the heart, blood vessels, lungs and lifestyle of randomly invited people between the ages of 50 and 64 are surveyed in detail. “By 2018, SCAPIS will include 30,000 individuals. It’s an enormous project and will give us a fantastic bank of data that we can use for research purposes for decades to come.” Another area that he wants to develop is registry research on new drugs and meditech products. “Licences for new drugs are often based on studies for which the patients are rigorously selected. So it’s important that follow-ups are also done afterwards to find out what the actual effects are in reality.”

Tomas Jernberg Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Tomas Jernberg was born in Söderhamn in 1966. He studied medicine at KI, graduating in 1993 and becoming registered a year later. He earned his PhD from Uppsala University in 2000, where he also began his research career, becoming docent in 2004. Tomas Jernberg became a cardiologist in 2001 and has pursued a clinical career at Uppsala University Hospital and Stockholm South

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General (Söder) Hospital. Since 2005 he has been working at KI and Karolinska University Hospital, where he is currently cardiology consultant at the cardiology clinic. Tomas Jernberg was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 March 2016.

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Improving drug treatment for the elderly Elderly patients often need drugs but are also susceptible to side effects. Kristina Johnell at the Aging Research Center researches the use of drugs among older people and how it can be optimised.

As we age, we are more likely to suffer adverse reactions to medications. This is due both to the fact that increasing age correlates with more co-morbidities and medication use, and to age-related physiological changes, such as slower excretion of drugs from the body and a greater sensitivity of the brain to drug effects. Kristina Johnell researches drug use in the elderly population, what consequences it has and how it can be improved. “We usually take more drugs with advancing age and frailty,” says Professor Johnell. “About forty percent of people aged 65 years and older living at home take five or more drugs, a figure that rises to about 75 percent for those in sheltered housing. At the same time, we know that the multimorbid elderly on multiple medications are often excluded from clinical trials. All this makes it extremely important that proper studies are conducted of drug use among older people.”

Professor Johnell mainly bases her research on large registries, and often on the National Board of Health and Welfare’s “Indicators of appropriate drug therapy in the elderly”, which identifies the drugs that are considered problematic for elderly patients. “The indicators provide solid ground to work from, but these types of indicators are often necessarily based on expert consensus, given the general lack of evidence from clinical trials. What we aim to do with our research is to fill this knowledge gap. For instance, we’ve been able to demonstrate a link between inappropriate drug treatment and a higher degree of hospitalisation in the elderly,” she says.

Kristina Johnell Professor of Geriatric Pharmacoepidemiology at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society Kristina Johnell was born in Malmö in 1977 and studied pharmacy at Uppsala University, graduating in 2002. She earned her PhD in 2005 from the Centre for Family Medicine at KI. She has been a researcher at the Aging Research Center (ARC) since 2006. She was appointed docent in 2010.

Kristina Johnell was appointed deputy division head of the ARC in 2011 and division head in 2014. She is also deputy head of the department of neurobiology, care sciences and society since 2015. Kristina Johnell was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 January 2016.

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The interaction between B cells and macrophages Mikael Karlsson researches the regulation of the immune system and why it sometimes becomes disrupted, leading to disease. He is particularly interested in B cells and macrophages. His research adds to knowledge of autoimmune diseases and is also related to cancer.

The immune system is both a barrier that protects the body against attack and a caretaker that clears away the dead cells resulting from new tissue formation or injury. Professor Karlsson researches mechanisms that control these processes – and how they sometimes malfunction. He is particularly interested in B cells and macrophages and how these two cell types interact. “The immune system must be able to differentiate between its defence function and its cleaning function,” says Professor Karlsson. “When it can’t, there’s a risk of autoimmune disease when signals linked to the clearing function over-activate the immune system so much that its starts to attack endogenous cells.” Professor Karlsson’s group has discovered a mechanism for how the immune system normally avoids this eventuality: NKT cells make sure that the clearing does not lead to over-activation. In recent years, Professor Karlsson’s interest in macrophages has also brought him round to cancer-related research.

“We read that other researchers found a close link between a certain type of macrophage that we had been studying and breast cancer, and this pricked our curiosity,” he says. “We discovered that the macrophage, in practice, abets cancer and then found a way to make it attack the tumour instead.” This is a new and untried principle for cancer therapy, and has been tested by Professor Karlsson’s group on three kinds of tumour in mice, with promising results. “We’re currently negotiating with some biotech companies on developing the concept into a therapy,” he says.

Mikael Karlsson Professor of Immunology at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Mikael Karlsson was born in 1968 in Skinnskatteberg. He studied medical science at Uppsala University, graduating in 1996. In 2000 he earned his PhD from the same institution. The following four years he spent as a postdoc and researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology, Rockefeller University, New York, USA.

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Since 2005 he has been a researcher at KI, initially at the Department of Medicine in Solna, and then at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology. He was made docent of experimental immunology in 2009. Mikael Karlsson was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 March 2016.

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Searching for substances effective against tumour cells Sonia Lain is searching for molecules that have the potential to become future cancer therapies and has selected from over 60,000 substances the most promising candidates. Once the molecular mechanisms have been identified, it will also be possible to see what other diseases the substances can be effective against.

One problem with conventional cancer therapies is that they also attack healthy cells and increase the risk of other cancers later in life through the damage they cause to the genome. Sonia Lain is searching for substances that are effective against cancer cells but easier on healthy tissue. “Our research group has screened a large number of drug-like substances to see which ones have interesting effects on cancer cells,” says Professor Lain. “We’ve then continued to sift out the most potent and/or selective substances, so from over 60,000 in our initial collection we have selected 40 to do further research on.” The greatest challenge in the research process is the step that then follows: to identify the molecular mechanisms by which each of these small molecules exert their effects on cells. “To this end, we have used several biochemistry and genetic technologies as well as done a lot of reading and detective work,” says Professor Lain. “In particular, we’ve made use of what’s been written about the protein p53, which is a good marker for anticancer effects and very informative in different ways.”

Professor Lain’s group has managed to pin down the mechanisms for many of the selected substances, knowledge that is the key to the next steps: modifying the molecule to boost its effectiveness and identifying the clinical situations in which it can be most useful. “Our challenge now is to take the substances to the right type of cancer,” says Professor Lain. “And we also know that some of the molecules can be used for diseases other than cancer – we’ve already seen that a group of substances is effective against certain types of virus infection. We’re also preparing patents to enable continuing development in association with the pharmaceutical industry.”

Sonia Lain Professor of Molecular Cancer Pharmacology at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Sonia Lain was born in Barcelona in 1963. She studied biology at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, graduating in 1986 and earning her PhD from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 1990. In 1991 she was a postdoc funded by the Spanish research council, and from 1992 to 1993 an EMBO financed postdoc at Gothenburg University. From 1995 to 2010, Sonia Lain was a researcher at the University

of Dundee, Scotland, initially as a postdoc and later as a senior lecturer (from 2002). In 2008 she became group leader at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, where she was made docent in 2012. Sonia Lain was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 15 November 2015.

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p53 – the guardian of the genome The p53 protein has a key function in the body’s immune response to cancer. Sir David Lane discovered p53 at the end of the 1970s and has devoted his life in science to researching the protein and putting knowledge of it to clinical use. He is continuing his research with KI as a base.

The most prominent common denominator for different forms of human cancer is the failure of the p53 protein to function properly. The protein is normally found in all cells, where its role is to discover and prevent genetic mutations that can lead to cancer. It is described as the “guardian of the genome”, an expression coined by Sir David Lane, who made the important discovery of p53 in the 1970s. “Understanding more about p53 and trying to clinically exploit this property of tumours has been the theme of my research,” he says. “If we understand what p53 does, we can also understand the fundamentals of cancer.” An important part of Professor Lane’s research concerns the protein MDM2, which regulates p53. “We’re exploring if it’s possible to treat cancer by blocking MDM2,” he says. “We’re doing research on peptides, which is exciting. They’re a very good fit, but they also introduce certain problems that must be dealt with, including the matter of stability.”

Another line of research for Professor Lane concerns how p53 could be used for diagnostic purposes. “We know that the prognosis for cancer patients is more favourable when the disease is detected early. Since changes in p53 are so common in cancer they could be used as a marker.” Professor Lane is now building his research group at Karolinska Institutet while continuing as Chief Scientist at A*STAR in Singapore. “It’s fantastic to be at Karolinska Institutet, especially because a lot of interesting work is being done here on p53,” he says.

Sir David Lane Professor of Tumour Suppressor Biology at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Sir David Lane, born in 1952, studied microbiology at University College, London, where he went on to earn his PhD in 1976. Since then, he has held a number of important positions in the UK and Singapore, including at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Cancer Research UK, the University of Dundee in Scotland and A*STAR

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in Singapore. He was made director of research at the Ludwig Institute in 2013. In 2000 he was awarded a knighthood in the UK for his contributions to science. Sir David Lane was offered a professorship at Karolinska Institutet starting on 1 December 2014.

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Socioeconomic risk factors for tuberculosis Knut Lönnroth’s main line of research is the socioeconomic risk factors for tuberculosis and how the health services, especially in low and middle-income countries, can be designed to combat the disease more effectively. At KI, migration and health will also be an important theme of his research.

Every year some ten million people around the world contract tuberculosis, 1.5 million of them fatally. If the spread of this disease is to be contained and the care given made more efficient, further work needs to be done on the links between the disease and its socioeconomic factors. “We know that tuberculosis is a typical poverty-related disease,” says Professor Lönnroth. “But we also need to understand why this is so, otherwise it will be hard to devise effective measures. This would also give us a better general picture of the strong link between poverty and health.” As a researcher at the WHO for the past 13 years, Professor Lönnroth has taken a particular interest in how the care services can best work with other sectors of society to prevent tuberculosis and help limit its social and economic ramifications. “One thing we’ve been able to show is that, globally speaking, the average personal cost of contracting TB is equivalent to half an annual income – in spite of the fact that diagnosis, drugs and treatments are often free of charge,” he says. “Treatment takes a

long time, travel costs can be considerable, and many of those who fall ill lose their jobs even if they are still completely, or partly capable of doing them. And few people have access to compensation for loss of income.” At KI, Professor Lönnroth continues his work on tuberculosis, and is studying how the Swedish policy for TB screening works in practice. He also intends to broaden his research to questions about the healthcare needs of asylum-seekers in Sweden and what it means to the Swedish health services. “This is a highly topical question that we need to investigate much more,” he says.

Knut Lönnroth Professor of Social Medicine at the Department of Public Health Sciences Knut Lönnroth was born in Gothenburg in 1964. He studied medicine at KI, graduating in 1992, and holds a master’s in clinical epidemiology from the University of Newcastle, Australia, which he earned in 1995. Lönnroth registered as a doctor in 1997, and became a specialist in social medicine in 2003. He earned his PhD at Gothenburg University in 2000, where he became docent in 2006. He has also been a teacher at the Nordic School of Public Health.

He has been a medical officer for the WHO’s global programme for tuberculosis since 2003. Knut Lönnroth was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position as consultant at the Centre of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Stockholm County Council on 1 September 2015.

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Improving anaesthesia care for children Per-Arne Lönnqvist’s research aims to improve anaesthesia care for children. He has helped to develop the use of ultrasound for improving the precision of local anaesthetic administration and has been a pioneer in the use of alpha-2 agonists in paediatric anaesthesia and intensive care.

Anaesthesia for children differs from that for adults in many ways. Children are not only physically smaller, their bodies also work differently, for example as regards the metabolism and breakdown of drugs. Another important difference is that many important drugs lack studies on and recommendations for young children. Professor Lönnqvist researches how paediatric anaesthesia can be improved, focusing on clinical studies that develop and evaluate new treatments. The use of ultrasound for the administration of local anaesthetic has been a key line of inquiry. “You can see incredibly well using ultrasound, not just where you have the needle but also how the anaesthetic spreads in the tissue,” explains Professor Lönnqvist. “The method originates from colleagues in Vienna, and we were among the first to try it out. Today, it’s used around the world.” Another theme for Lönnqvist as both a clinician and a researcher is the use of so-called alpha-2 agonists as an anaesthetic, which is now standard practice in Swedish paediatric care.

“One of the advantages of alpha-2 agonists is that they affect the brain’s alertness centre, which makes the anaesthetic more like natural sleep,” he says. “They also reduce stress and alleviate pain.” His research group is part of a European collaboration set up to help generate better empirical evidence regarding young children and important drugs. Professor Lönnqvist is also involved with colleagues and meditech companies in the development of new treatments and new apparatus for anaesthesia and intensive care.

Per-Arne Lönnqvist Professor of Paediatric Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Per-Arne Lönnqvist was born in Stockholm in 1958. He studied medicine at KI, graduating in 1982. In 1988 he became a specialist in paediatric anaesthesiology. As a clinician he has worked at St Göran’s Children’s Hospital and has been consultant at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital since 1998. Per-Arne Lönnqvist earned his PhD in 1996 and became a docent

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in 1997. In 2007 he was appointed adjunct professor at KI and has been visiting professor at several universities in the USA and UK, most recently at Texas Children’s Hospital (2010). Per-Arne Lönnqvist was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position as consultant at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital on 1 July 2016.

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Studying genome regulation using single-cell analysis Rickard Sandberg has developed a method of single-cell analysis that provides groundbreaking molecular insight into the properties and function of cells. The method is used around the world to examine normal and morbid tissue. He himself uses it to find out how DNA and cell identities are regulated.

For some years now it has been possible to analyse the activity of all the genes in a single cell. Professor Sandberg has brought to the development of this research field – single-cell analysis – a methodology that is now used around the world. “In our own research we use single-cell analysis to understand how genetic material is regulated by studying large-scale activity patterns over thousands of individual cells of varying kinds,” explains Professor Sandberg. “Our ultimate aim is to understand the logic of the regulation process that governs the cells’ identity. The questions are not new, but the ability to study the activity of genetic material in individual cells means that we can look for the answers more effectively and at a more detailed level. Doing this requires both experimental scientists and advanced data analysis, so the group consists of as many bioinformaticists as experimentalists.” By carrying out large-scale analyses of individual cells, Professor Sandberg’s lab has discovered that there are frequently

variations in the expression of the mother’s and father’s gene copies in human cells. This can have important implications for the causes and symptoms of disease. “The patterns we observed in single cells disappear when we study populations of cells, which explains why no one has mapped them before,” says Professor Sandberg. Professor Sandberg collaborates with other research groups in the application of single-cell analysis to a number of different fields, from the study of the pancreas to the electrophysiology of the brain, malaria-infected blood cells and marine organisms.

Rickard Sandberg Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology Rickard Sandberg was born in Stockholm in 1977, and studied biomedicine at KI, where he also earned his PhD in 2004. In 2005– 2007 he was a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, and he has been a researcher at KI since 2008. He is also affiliated with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Rickard Sandberg was made a docent in 2013. He has received

numerous awards, including the Anders Jahre medical prize for young medical research in 2014, the Svedberg Prize in 2016 and the Eric K. Fernström Prize for promising junior scientists, also in 2016. Rickard Sandberg was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 November 2015.

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Reducing risk during pregnancy and childbirth Anna-Karin Wikström researches pregnancy-related complications, especially preeclampsia. Two important lines of her research involve registry studies of risk factors during pregnancy and childbirth, and MRI studies of the placenta and the maternal brain during preeclampsia.

Anna-Karin Wikström wants to help reduce the risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and improve the treatment of those affected. Much of her research involves epidemiological studies of different risk factors. “Obesity is one such factor,” says Professor Wikström. “We know that severely overweight women run a five-fold risk of preeclampsia. Another factor that has interested me is the taking of snus (a dipping tobacco product), since there has been no research on the effect of snus on pregnancy.” Many women change from cigarettes to snus when pregnant, Professor Wikström adds, but her research shows that snus also entails an increased risk of serious complications – including fetal death, retarded growth and preterm birth. Professor Wikström is a member of the steering committee for the new National Quality Registry for Pregnancy, which she hopes will be important to both care and research.

“I’d like to see more randomised studies in perinatal care and the registry offers good opportunities for this,” she says. “The first study, on postterm pregnancy, is already under way.” Professor Wikström also researches the function of the placenta and its role in preeclampsia. “I use MR imagery to study placental perfusion and metabolism. We find that cases of early preeclampsia are usually caused by the failure of the placenta, while late preeclampsia has more complex causes.”

Anna-Karin Wikström Professor of Obstetrics at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital Anna-Karin Wikström was born in Hudiksvall in 1965. She studied medicine at Karolinska Institutet, graduating in 1991. She registered as a doctor in 1993 and became a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2001. Wikström earned her PhD at Uppsala University in 2007 and joined KI as a postdoc in 2009. She was made docent in 2011 and is an affiliate professor at KI’s Clinical Epidemiology Unit.

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As a clinician, she worked at Hudiksvall Hospital (1991–2000) and Uppsala University Hospital (2000–2016). She is currently consultant at Danderyd Hospital. Anna-Karin Wikström was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position of consultant at Danderyd Hospital on 1 April 2016.

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Brain development in premature babies Many babies who are born very prematurely suffer some form of brain damage. Ulrika Ådén researches how the risk of such damage can be mitigated, and how the damage caused can be alleviated. Her research includes the effects of different clinical interventions and the importance of vocal and tactile stimulation.

Ulrika Ådén’s research concerns babies who developed brain damage at birth owing either to complications during delivery or to being born extremely prematurely (i.e. in the second trimester). Approximately two thirds of these babies develop such low cognitive skills that they will have difficulty keeping up with their schooling. “We’re almost the best in the world in Sweden when it comes to saving the lives of premature babies,” says Professor Ådén. “But we know little about how their brains develop, and what we can do to help them do so as normally as possible.” Professor Ådén develops methods for diagnosing brain damage in infants using magnetic resonance tomography (MRT), and for understanding how the impairment affects their development. Clinically, the methods can be used for the early identification of children in need of extra support. By linking her MR results to clinical data and the like, Professor Ådén is also able to identify early risk and health factors.

“It’s about healthcare-related factors, like surgery, nutrition and respirator care, as well as the kind of stimulation the brain receives – such as through skin contact and hearing voices and music,” she says. “We hope to be able to improve the care provided for the children and to reduce future brain damage.” Another line of research Professor Ådén is pursuing concerns immunological memories of brain trauma in infants. “When the blood-brain barrier is broken down, during a stroke for example, it can leave immunological traces,” she explains. “We want to understand more about these traces and their potential consequences later in life.”

Ulrika Ådén Professor of Neonatology at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health Ulrika Ådén was born in 1972 in Stockholm. She studied medicine at KI, graduating in 1996 and becoming registered in 1999. She earned her PhD at KI in 2001. In 2003 she did her postdoc at the neurodevelopment clinic of Hospital Robert Debre, Paris, France. She was made docent in 2007. As a clinician, Ulrika Ådén has been active at Karolinska University

Hospital since 1996 and at its Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital since 2001. She became a specialist in paediatrics in 2009 and neonatology in 2013. Ulrika Ådén was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet in combination with the position of consultant at Karolinska University Hospital on 1 April 2016.

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Surveying patients to understand the mechanisms behind kidney disease Annika Östman Wernerson researches molecular mechanisms causing different kidney diseases in the hope that the knowledge generated will lead to more effective diagnosis, care and treatment. She also researches the field of pedagogics, studying how students cope with and are affected by unpleasant experiences during their education.

Annika Östman Wernerson’s research concerns what actually happens in the event of different kidney diseases. Better knowledge of disease mechanisms can help bring about more effective diagnosis and follow-up and inspire new therapies. “A lot of work needs to be done,” she says. “There’s still so much to learn about what causes some of our common kidney diseases, and we need improved ways of making diagnoses and monitoring the progress of the diseases in individual patients so that they can be given more personalised treatment.” Her research also includes studies of plantation workers in e.g. Central America who are suffering from chronic kidney disease. Professor Wernerson and her colleagues have started a project in which they carefully map patients who undergo renal biopsy where they save tissue for gene expression analysis. “The project allows us to make systematic studies of gene activity in sick and healthy kidney tissue and to relate to morphology and to biochemical data in blood and urine. New methods enable us to analyse gene expression in the tiny biopsy samples this involves.”

Another of her research lines concerns pedagogy. In an ongoing study she is examining how medical students’ learning process is affected by unpleasant experiences during their studies. “Students face many tough situations in their clinical placements, such as conveying distressing information, handling demanding patients or taking decisions under time pressure,” she says. “We have to be better to pick up their experiences and talk about them. The aim is to improve education and make students better prepared for their future profession.”

Annika Östman Wernerson Professor of Renal and Transplantation Science at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and Technology Annika Östman Wernerson was born in Stockholm in 1961. She earned her PhD from KI in 1990 and her medical degree the following year. In 2000 she became a specialist in clinical pathology and in 2003 a docent. Since 2004 she has been pathology consultant at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge. Östman Wernerson was director of the Centre for Clinical Educa-

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tion in 2008–2015. She received the KI Pedagogical Prize in 2012 and is a member of the Pedagogical Academy. She became dean of Higher Education in 2015. Annika Östman Wernerson was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 January 2016.

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PROFESSORIAL CHAIR

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PROFESSORIAL CHAIR

Miia Kivipelto

Photo: Erik Cronberg.

Miia Kivipelto, professor of clinical geriatric epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet since 2012, has received the Stockholm Sjukhem’s professorial chair in clinical geriatrics.

The focus of the Stockholm Sjukhem’s professorship in clinical geriatrics is age-related diseases and care of the elderly. The mission includes research strategic management, own research, supervision of doctoral students and contributing to education in geriatric medicine at Karolinska Institutet. Miia Kivipelto’s internationally prized research aims to find risk factors for and prevention of dementia. Among other things, her research has strengthened insights into how the development of dementia can be slowed down through the use of lifestyle measures such as memory training, physical activity and nutrition counseling. She will now work to develop a platform for high-quality clinical studies of dementia. Her work also includes developing models for assessing a person’s risk of dementia, investigating which mechanisms drive the disease and how these can be counteracted through a range of measures. It also aims to cover other age-related disorders, co-morbidity and drug use among the elderly.

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ADJUNCT PROFESSORS AND VISITING PROFESSORS

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ADJUNCT PROFESSOR S

Maria Teresa Bejarano Adjunct Professor of Infection Biology at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology. The position is at 0.2 FTE for four years starting on 1 June 2016. Maria Teresa Bejarano’s principal position is Senior Research Advisor at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Maria Teresa Bejarano tackles two very different killers in the developing world: malaria and antimicrobial resistance. Her research in immunology and infection biology also informs her work as advisor and coordinator of Sida’s support to global health research programs. As a researcher, Bejarano determined with her colleagues how the protozoan parasite that causes malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, interacts with blood cells at a molecular level to protect itself from the human immune system. They identified a molecular link between the parasite, white blood cells called B cells and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). These interactions lead to endemic Burkitt’s lymphoma (eBL), the most common childhood cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria is endemic. The researchers’ findings support the concept of polymicrobial disease pathogenesis in eBL. Bejarano’s work also includes advocating for including antimicrobial resistance in the global development agenda and health programs’ curricula. She fosters education and health research programs in various countries, focusing in particular on diseases of poverty. She will continue both her research and global health diplomacy work at Karolinska Institutet.

Frieder Braunschweig Adjunct Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Medicine, Solna. The position is at 0.3 FTE for four years starting on 1 June 2016. Frieder Braunschweig’s principal position is chief of Patient Area Arrhythmia at Karolinska University Hospital. Frieder Braunschweig is a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology, and he is particularly interested in heart failure and arrhythmia, or heartbeats that are off-kilter. His research is focused on treatment using devices to prevent heart failure or reset arrhythmias, as well as on the effects of endurance exercise on cardiac function. Devices implanted in the heart can resynchronize the contraction of the heart muscles. Braunschweig and his colleagues want to take the devices a step further: They are investigating how they can better select patients who would benefit most from these therapies. They also want to use the data these devices collect for improved management of heart failure, by continually monitoring cardiac pressures and other signals to see if doctors can intervene earlier, before life-threatening problems occur. Braunschweig also looks at how endurance sports – for example, running the 30-km crosscountry race Lidingöloppet – affect cardiac function, electrophysiologically, mechanically and biochemically. He wants to be able to identify individuals who might be at risk of cardiovascular problems while engaging in endurance exercise.

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Anca Catrina Adjunct Professor of Rheumatology at the Department of Medicine, Solna. The position is at 0.2 FTE for four years starting on 1 May 2016. Anca Catrina’s principal position is senior consultant in Rheumatology at the Karolinska University Hospital. Anca Catrina leads a research team that focuses on rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the joints that leads to decreased quality of life and disability. Her group focuses on how gene interactions with the environment might shape the immune response to attack and destroy the joints. Recently, Catrina and her colleagues found clues to when and how the immune system will attack the joints in patients developing rheumatoid arthritis. Genetically susceptible individuals’ immune systems are first activated at sites outside the joints, as a result of environmental triggers such as smoking. This leads to the formation of antibodies that can be detected in the blood long before the onset of the disease. These antibodies recognize specific signals coming from bone cells and move into the bone marrow near the joints, where they induce bone loss and subsequently joint inflammation. Catrina’s team uses a large array of techniques to examine these immune reactions at a molecular level. She and her colleagues also employ large databases, such as the national rheumatoid arthritis registry and the Swedish Twin Registry, and blood, tissue and other clinical samples.

Annika Tibell Adjunct Professor of Medical Ethics with focus on organ donation and transplantation at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics. The position is for three years starting on 1 October 2015. Annika Tibell’s principal position is chief physician for the new Karolinska project. Annika Tibell has been a transplant surgeon and researcher for more than two decades. Her main research areas were then cell transplantation and xenotransplantation (transplantation between species), areas combining complex biological and ethical challenges. After becoming chairman for the Department of Transplantation Surgery, she focused her interest on the main limiting factor for providing patients in need with a life saving organ: the lack of deceased organ donors. Tibell has firsthand experiences of how a successful transplantation changes the life of a recipient. Simultaneously the family to the deceased organ donor generally feels happy that their loved one has been able to improve another individual´s life – the only light in a dark period. Internationally, the lack of organs has led to organ trade and even trafficking of individuals for the retrieval of organs. Tibell has been involved in national and international policy making e.g. the Amsterdam and Vancouver declarations for the protection of live donors and she was member of the steering committee initiating the Declaration of Istanbul on organ trafficking and transplant tourism. She has also been active in numerous ethics councils and boards including being chairman of the Transplantation Society Ethics Committee when developing guidelines for interaction with China.

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Tomas Wester

Photo: Private.

Adjunct Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health. The position is at 0.3 FTE for four years starting on 1 November 2015. Tomas Wester’s principal position is Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at the Karolinska University Hospital.

Tomas Wester’s research focuses on paediatric colorectal disorders. A broad range are malformations of the end of the digestive tract in babies and children. These defects can vary from mild irregularities of the anus and rectum that can be easily fixed, to severe malformations that also affect the genitals and urinary tract. Another such disorder that he studies is Hirschsprung disease, a developmental defect of the bowel’s nerve system, which obstructs defecation in newborns. Wester and his colleagues also are interested in acute appendicitis, which usually leads to surgery in children. Appendectomy has been the standard treatment of appendicitis for more than a century, but recent work has shown that antibiotics can successfully treat appendicitis in adults, without surgery. Wester and his colleagues recently completed a pilot trial showing that antibiotic treatments for children with acute non-perforated appendicitis are also safe and successful. Currently, Wester’s research group is involved in clinical outcome studies, as well as epidemiological and molecular studies. As an adjunct professor at Karolinska Institutet, Wester will continue this work.

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VISITING PROFESSOR S

Lars Fugger

Photo: Ernst Tobich.

Visiting Professor of Neuroimmunology at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 September 2015. Lars Fugger’s principal position is Professor of Neuroimmunology at John Radcliffe Hospital at the University of Oxford. While multiple sclerosis (MS) is known to be related to the body’s defense mechanisms, researchers do not know exactly how the immune response plays a role in the development of the disease. Lars Fugger and his colleagues are seeking to find out how genes that govern the body’s immune response might trigger the body’s defense mechanisms to fight itself. Fugger and his team translate basic biomedical research into clinically applicable findings. They recently completed a proof-of-principle study linking genes to therapeutic outcomes: they showed for the first time that knowing the genetic variations that have biological consequences for how genes for immunity function can help doctors predict the success of a therapy for multiple sclerosis. While at Karolinska Institutet Fugger plans to focus on how genes, proteins and their environment interact to cause multiple sclerosis.

Mika Gissler

Photo: Selma Wolofsky.

Visiting Professor of General Practice at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 March 2016. Mika Gissler’s principal position is Research Professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland.

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Mika Gissler plumbs deep datasets for information on a range of healthcare issues, from childbirth to mental health to healthcare services. He has worked with health and welfare registers in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, as well as several other countries. Of late, Gissler’s research has followed large groups of people over long timeframes, from before birth through adulthood. He and his colleagues are currently analyzing data from the 1987 Finnish Birth Cohort, which followed 60,000 children born in 1987 until 2012. The data include the children’s health at birth, their parents’ socioeconomic status, and more. The researchers hope to find connections between individuals’ prenatal and early life situations and their health and social coping mechanisms later on, in adolescence and early adulthood. Gissler and his fellow researchers recently began a new birth cohort study of children born in 1997. Gissler is not unfamiliar with working in Sweden: he was Professor of Epidemiology at the Nordic School of Public Health in Gothenburg, from 2007 to 2014. As a visiting professor at Karolinska Institutet, he plans to conduct register-based studies on mental health and on migrant health questions.

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Eystein Sverre Husebye

Photo: Private.

Visiting Professor of Endocrinology at the Department of Medicine, Solna. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 January 2016. Eystein Sverre Husebye’s principal position is Professor at the Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen. Eystein Sverre Husebye specialises in diseases that affect the endocrine system, which produces hormones that govern all sorts of processes in the human body, from growth and development to sleep and mood. Husebye’s main interest area is autoimmune diseases where the body’s immune system attacks specific tissues and organs, for instance the thyroid, adrenal cortex and parathyroid glands. Often two or more organs are subject to autoimmune attack in an individual, called an autoimmune polyglandular disorder. Husebye’s studies range from genetic causes and pathogenesis to epidemiology and quality of life. He and his colleagues recently defined genetic mutations defining a new form of autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome, and have developed a new continuous cortisol replacement therapy using pumps. Husebye now coordinates the European Horizon 2020 project Ultradian, in which Karolinska Institutet is a partner, to develop a new way of diagnosing endocrine disease by using 24-hour sampling of microdialysis fluid and hormone assays in minute sample volumes. At Karolinska Institutet, Husebye will work on Addison’s disease, using the world’s largest registries and biobanks to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Photo: Lasse Lecklin.

Matti Hämäläinen

Visiting Professor of Magnetoencephalography Methods Development at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 March 2015. Matti Hämäläinen’s principal position is Director of the Magnetoencephalography Core Research Group at Massachusetts General Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, where he is Associate Professor of Radiology. As “a diehard physicist,” Matti Hämäläinen has led the field in whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG), the process of mapping activity in a person’s brain by measuring the magnetic fields due to electric currents in neurons. He has created new methods and software to map the sites and temporal changes of brain activity accurately. Hämäläinen and his colleagues have looked at various research questions, such as how the brain processes sound and spatial information, while perfecting MEG methods. Using the technique with other brain imaging methods, Hämäläinen has been working toward getting images of brain activity in real time. He recently collaborated with Boston Children’s Hospital to introduce the first high-density whole-head “BabyMEG” system to study early brain development in infants and children up to three years of age. At Karolinska Institutet, Hämäläinen will work at the Swedish National Magnetoencephalography (NatMEG) facility. He is involved with several research projects, designing experiments and helping to develop the most appropriate analysis approaches. He will test next-generation MEG devices in “phantom” and human experiments and participate in training and lectures.

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Veikko Jousmäki

Photo: Private.

Visiting Professor of Magnetoencephalography Methods Development at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 October 2015. Veikko Jousmäki’s principal position is Head of Aalto NeuroImaging (ANI) at Aalto University. Veikko Jousmäki is a physicist who uses magnetoencephalography (MEG), which detects magnetic fields created by electrical activity in the brain, to study how the brain processes sounds, movements and other natural stimuli. Using the noninvasive technique, Jousmäki has shown that vibrotactile processing – or how the brain makes sense of touch and sound – takes place not only at the touch-processing cortices, but also at the auditory cortices. He has also shown how the so-called proprioceptive system is linked to movement and touch. Jousmäki has introduced new gadgets in MEG, such as accelerometers for monitoring movement and detecting vocal sounds and pneumatic artificial muscles for precise passive or involuntary movements. With his colleagues, Jousmäki developed a method called corticokinematic coherence, in which a linkage between self-paced or passive hand movements and MEG signals can be evaluated. Jousmäki’s current interests are in developing new devices to use with functional neuroimaging methods to study motor and sensory systems with ecological real-world settings, which he will pursue at the Swedish National Magnetoencephalography (NatMEG) facility as a visiting professor.

Henrik Larsson

Photo: Gunnar Ask.

Visiting Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 March 2016. Henrik Larsson’s principal position is Professor at the Örebro University.

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Henrik Larsson studies Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adults. His research incorporates interdisciplinary methods to find links between ADHD medical treatments and crime, traffic accidents, suicide and other problems in patients’ lives, for example. One result is that drugs can lessen the rates of crime for ADHD patients. Larsson uses molecular and genetic techniques, pharmaco-epidemiological studies, large databases and health registers, and even health economics to get to his findings. One of his recent results showed that physical activity in teenagers can lessen the symptoms of ADHD by the time they become adults. Twin studies also have allowed Larsson and his colleagues to tease out the relative contribution of genes and environment on ADHD across a lifetime. Such studies, with fraternal and identical twins in the Swedish Twin Study, have already shown that the genetic factors of importance for ADHD also seem to be of importance for other neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism.

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Outi Mäkitie

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Visiting Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. The position is at 0.4 FTE for three years starting on 1 June 2016. Outi Mäkitie’s principal position is Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology at Children’s Hospital, University of Helsinki. Outi Mäkitie focuses on vitamin D and various bone diseases, particularly osteoporosis, in children and young adults. Seemingly innocuous vitamin D can have significant impacts on the health of children and adolescents. Deficiencies in this key vitamin can be tied to rickets and other skeletal problems, and perhaps even to growth, infections and allergies. Mäkitie has shown that vitamin D deficiency is common in chronically ill children, contributing to a high risk for osteoporosis. Her research group studies how vitamin D supplements in healthy children influence bone strength and other health parameters during childhood. Mäkitie’s studies on osteoporosis focus especially on young patients with increased bone fractures. The early onset of the disease in these patients suggests that they have a genetic predisposition to osteoporosis. She and her colleagues aim to identify new genes and gene defects leading to osteoporosis and to understand its other causes. At Karolinska Institutet, she will explore how childhood cancer treatment affects bone health and whether vitamin D deficiency plays a role, and study genetic causes of osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases in children and young adults.

Robert Oostenveld

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Robert Oostenveld is finding new ways to map how people think, using new analysis techniques for magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalograpy. MEG measures the tiny magnetic fields emitted by active neurons in the brain, and requires sophisticated data analysis to weed out the noise from real signals. Oostenveld and his colleagues are working out new analytical methods and improving tools and common research practices, for example, by creating the open-access software FieldTrip. Oostenveld has contributed to a variety of other efforts, including BrainGain, a Dutch consortium looking at direct interfaces between human brains and computers, particularly for people with disabilities and brain disorders. He is part of the ongoing Human Connectome Project (HCP), an international team of researchers that aims to map the neural pathways that direct brain function and behaviour. While at Karolinska Institutet, Oostenveld intends to extend and improve MEG data analysis methods and strategies for clinical research questions, and to improve MEG data acquisition techniques using novel sensor designs and analysis methods.

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Lennart Svensson Visiting Professor of Molecular Virology at the Department of Medicine, Solna. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 March 2016. Lennart Svensson’s principal position is Professor at the Linköping University. Lennart Svensson investigates the role of genetics in humans’ susceptibility to viruses. He and his colleagues study rotavirus and norovirus, which cause stomach flu or “winter vomiting disease,” and flavivirus, such as Dengue fever and Zika virus. For rotavirus and norovirus, his main objective is to uncover how they cause disease symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting, as well as a limited inflammatory response. Svensson’s team found a surprising gut-brain connection: rotavirus makes neuroendocrine cells in the gut release serotonin, which stimulates the enteric nervous system and the vagus nerve, sending messages to the brain that trigger symptoms. The researchers recently tested neurotransmitter blockers in children to inhibit the release of serotonin, in search of a therapeutic approach to limit vomiting and diarrhea from rotavirus and norovirus. They also identified a human genetic factor that limits the success of rotavirus vaccine in Africa. And they found a gene mutation that makes the European population almost completely resistant to the most common strains of norovirus. Svensson will work on Zika virus at Karolinska Institutet, to understand the flavivirus’ potential for trans-mission in Europe.

Unnur Valdimarsdóttir

Photo: Vivikanda Lanka.

Visiting Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 October 2015. Unnur Valdimarsdóttir’s principal position is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Iceland.

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Unnur Valdimarsdóttir works to understand the potential influence of emotional stress on the development of diseases, especially cancer. Her team recently published results showing that the stress of receiving a cancer diagnosis rapidly affects patients’ risk of severe, stress-induced outcomes such as fatal heart attacks and suicide. She also has studied how the loss of a spouse, parent or child can affect the health and disease risk in surviving relatives. Iceland, like Sweden, has high-quality datasets available for epidemiological studies on a considerable proportion of its population. Using these important and extensive genetic resources, in addition to ongoing studies in Iceland and Sweden, Valdimarsdóttir and her colleagues have recently launched a new program to identify genetic variants that predict varying trajectories of health, including post-traumatic stress disorder, following exposure to significant life stressors or trauma. Valdimarsdóttir currently collaborates with researchers at Harvard University and Örebro University, as well as at Karolinska Institutet, where she continues her work on these and other projects as visiting professor.

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Riitta Veijola Visiting Professor of Paediatric Diabetology at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health. The position is at 0.25 FTE for three years starting on 1 September 2015. Riitta Veijola’s principal position is Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Oulu. Riitta Veijola specialises in paediatrics and endocrinology, and combines the two in her research into genetic and environmental risk factors for childhood diseases such as type 1 diabetes. Veijola and her colleagues recently found immune systems differences at protein and cellular level in children who are developing type 1 diabetes, compared to children without the disease. She has also shown that blood glucose levels start to increase one or two years before symptoms of diabetes appear, a finding which significantly improves disease prediction, and which could prevent children with the disease from experiencing severe symptoms before they are diagnosed. Veijola is involved in large-scale studies of type 1 diabetes in children, including the Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) Study and TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young, based at the University of South Florida, USA). Part of her work involves communication of risk: how best to tell families about disease and the factors that might put children at risk, especially for developing diabetes.

Per Wester Visiting Professor of Clinical Stroke Research at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital. The position is at 0.3 FTE for three years starting on 1 October 2015. Per Wester’s principal position is Professor and senior stroke physician at Umeå University. Per Wester started his career in neurobiology studying Alzheimer’s disease, but soon turned to stroke and cardiovascular disease. Wester and his team have explored mechanisms related to cell death and brain recovery after stroke. The researchers have found newborn nerve cells (neurogenesis) and newborn blood vessels (angiogenesis) in the ischemic part of the brain after stroke. Wester wants to combine experimental and clinical stroke projects, where results from experimental studies guide clinical trial design. Currently, Wester focuses on studying carotid plaques and heart arrhythmias in order to facilitate effective cardiovascular preventive treatment. At Karolinska Institutet, Wester will also be actively involved in a Nordic study that investigates stroke prevention effects after closing the left atrial appendage of the heart in patients with atrial fibrillation and brain hemorrhage. He and his team will also explore how the brain heals after a stroke, for example, when patients are treated with the drug fluoxetine, intense sensory and motor stimulation to improve dysphagia (problems in swallowing), or intense physical activity to ameliorate fatigue after a stroke.

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Cecilia Williams

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Visiting Professor of Experimental Oncology at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition. The position is at 0.2 FTE for three years starting on 1 April 2016. Cecilia Williams’ principal position is Professor at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology). Cecilia Williams studies cancer from many perspectives: from molecular mechanisms to largescale “omic” approaches that look at genes, RNA, proteins and other genetic aspects, in order to get to better cancer treatments and possible ways to prevent cancer. Williams is particularly interested in how the hormone estrogen plays a role in cancer. For example, in breast cancer, estrogen can increase the risk, but it can also protect against colon cancer. She looks at estrogen receptors and the roles they play in both diseases, while teasing out whether estrogen-like compounds from food or other sources might have different impacts. The pathways and targets for treatment that Williams and her colleagues pursue include different forms of non-coding RNA, the genetic material that does not code for proteins but can perform major functions, such as regulating other genes or be functionally active as RNA structures. This work is in partnership with Karolinska Institutet and the University of Houston, Texas, where Williams also holds an adjunct faculty position.

Biao Xu

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Visiting Professor of Public Health Epidemiology at the Department of Public Health Sciences. The position is at 0.3 FTE for four years starting on 1 October 2015. Xu’s principal position is Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health at Fudan University.

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Biao Xu studies the epidemiology and control of tuberculosis. The disease leads to premature deaths and is a heavy burden on low and middle income countries, including China, which has about 1 million new cases every year. Xu has been Director of the Tuberculosis Research Center at Fudan University in Shanghai since 2006. She and her colleagues have worked to improve equity in access to tuberculosis health care in China. Xu and her colleagues recently reported the risk of contact in tuberculosis transmission in rural China and have examined the cost-effectiveness of national TB control programs. Xu’s research also focuses on drug-resistant tuberculosis, of which more than half the cases occur in India, China and Russia. Researchers have struggled to find vaccines and treatments to help patients infected by TB microbes that have mutated to resist typical drugs, such as rifampin and isoniazid. As a visiting professor at Karolinska Institutet, Xu will study the epidemiology, risk factors and transmission mechanisms of multidrug and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis. Her goal is to translate molecular diagnostic technology and therapeutic drug monitoring into practice in countries with a high TB burden. 39

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FOREIGN ADJUNCT PROFESSORS

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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 â&#x20AC;&#x153;full professorâ&#x20AC;? 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.

Alexander Molasiotis

Piero Carninci

Home University The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Nursing, Hong Kong

Home University RIKEN Yokohama Campus, Division of Genomic Technologies, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, Yokohama, Japan

Foreign Adjunct Professor of Nursing

Department at KI Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society

Department at KI Department of Biosciences and Nutrition

Rudolf Valenta

Peter Griffiths

Home University Medical University of Vienna, Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, Vienna, Austria

Home University University of Southampton, Faculty of Health Sciences, Southampton, UK

Foreign Adjunct Professor of Allergology

Department at KI Department of Medicine, Solna

Foreign Adjunct Professor of Genome Analysis

Foreign Adjunct Professor of Innovative Care

Department at KI Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics

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PRIZES AND AWARDS

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PRIZES AND AWARDS

The Grand Silver Medal The Grand Silver Medal 2016 from Karolinska Institutet is awarded to Anders Ekbom, Ingemar Ernberg, Agneta Nordberg, Bengt Norrving and Elisabeth Olsson in special recognition of the outstanding contributions they have made to medical research and Karolinska Institutet.

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PRIZES AND AWARDS Anders Ekbom, Senior Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Medicine, Solna,

has been awarded the Grand Silver Medal for his exceptional work within several fields of research and his significant contributions to the whole of Karolinska Institutet. Professor Ekbom has played a major part in developing cooperation between KI and Karolinska University Hospital. He started the epidemiological research school for clinicians, creating increased exchanges between clinical operations and research at KI and paving the way for many clinicians to start carrying out research. During the early 2000s, he built up the highly successful Unit for Clinical Epidemiology at the Department of Medicine, Solna. In recent years, he has been a key figure in the introduction of research at the New Karolinska Hospital. Professor Ekbom has been highly active and successful within a number of fields of research, and now has more than 500 publications to his name. For example, his research has been of great significance to the way in which patients with ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis are monitored and treated.

Ingemar Ernberg, Senior Professor of Tumour Biology at the Department of Microbiology,

Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), has been awarded the Grand Silver Medal for his invaluable efforts to strengthen and develop the university’s operations. During his nearly 50 years at KI, Professor Ernberg has served as chairman and member of many decision-making and advisory boards and committees at the university. As Head of Department of MTC, he has been a shining example of creative leadership, and has built up a research and development environment that has become a role model for other departments at KI. He has taken the initiative for new research programmes, for example “What is Life?” and “Culture and Brain”, participated in several national organisations and initiative groups, and been extremely active in international contexts. His work has strengthened KI as a university and as a global player, and he has forged many rewarding partnerships. Professor Ernberg has also worked for increased adult education and information dissemination, including through pedagogical collaborative projects with schools, writing scientific literature and popular science books, and taking part in a number of TV and radio programmes. Alongside this, Professor Ernberg has also carried out his own research of the highest international quality, focusing primarily on the EBV virus – how infections and other mechanisms lead to the development of cancer in humans.

Agneta Nordberg, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the Department of Neurobiology,

Care Sciences and Society, has been awarded the Grand Silver Medal for her extraordinary efforts for patients with dementia. She has taken on the great challenges of Alzheimer’s research with tireless energy, contributing towards improved diagnosis and treatment opportunities for these patients. She is a world leader within the field of early diagnosis of dementia, and studies processes in the brain with PET scans. She has won international recognition for this pioneering research, and PET imaging is now approaching clinical implementation. Professor Nordberg has published more than 450 scientific articles, and has received many awards over the years. She leads a successful research team, and has benefited KI greatly through her involvement as a member of several boards and foundations, among them the Nobel Assembly. She is also a skilled clinician, focusing particularly on patients with early memory impairment. Here, she shows great commitment to her patients and is passionate about ensuring that they get the best possible diagnosis and treatment. FROM CELL TO SOCIETY 2016

PRIZES AND AWARDS

Photo: Camilla Svensk.

Bengt Norrving, former university director and administrative director at KI, has been

awarded the Grand Silver Medal for his outstanding contributions to the university. Bengt Norrving was vice-chancellor of the University of Health Sciences before it was incorporated into KI in 1998. He was actively involved in the pre-merger talks and helped to make sure the UHS was fully integrated into the KI organisation. Bengt Norrving’s wide experience of the public sector, academia, the departmental sphere and the municipal sector enabled him to bridge in exemplary fashion the cultural differences that existed between the two institutions. On behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research he has, amongst other commissions, led the national ALF (the agreements on medical education and research) negotiations on two occasions. His unique knowledge of the ALF agreement has been vital to the successful collaboration that has existed between KI and Stockholm County Council for many years. During his years at KI, Bengt Norrving was a highly competent and proactive official, and his influence on the development of the university’s core activities remained extremely significant until his retirement in 2014.

Elisabeth Olsson, Professor Emerita of Physiotherapy at the Department of Neurobiology,

Care Sciences and Society, has been awarded the Grand Silver Medal for her unparalleled efforts within research and education at Karolinska Institutet. She is regarded as a pioneer within physiotherapy. For eight years (1993-2001) she was Head of Department at the former Department of Physiotherapy at KI, and was subsequently Section Manager and Deputy Head of Department at the former Neurotec department (until 2005). During this period, she helped to develop the subject of physiotherapy, and the field underwent dramatic academic growth. Professor Olsson implemented a three-year bachelor’s level programme and a oneyear master’s programme in physiotherapy. She also created different conditions for research in the area and successfully established combined senior lectureships for physiotherapists together with Sweden’s first professorship in physiotherapy. The number of physiotherapists with a doctorate degree grew significantly, and the profession began to be engaged within central administrative functions at all levels. Professor Olsson has been involved not only in educational issues and on boards and programme committees, among others as representative of the teaching staff on the university board, but also as a representative of the university as an expert for many external inquiries and committees. In recent years she has successfully resumed her own research within motion analysis now focusing on new training and evaluation techniques for the elderly, and this project will now continue following Professor Olsson’s retirement.

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PRIZES AND AWARDS

The Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize is awarded to Alessandro Furlan Alessandro Furlan, doctoral student at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics has received the Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize 2016 for his thesis Neuronal types and their specification dynamics in the autonomic nervous system.

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.

He receives the prize for his research aiming to identify molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways that regulate the nervous system, with particular focus on the autonomic nervous system. Alessandro Furlan is first author of an article in EMBO Journal where he describes the role of the transcription factor HMX1 for development of noradrenergic sympathetic neurons. In a subsequent study in Nature Neuroscience, he reports a much greater specificity in the sympathetic system than previously known. He also co-first authored a Science paper describing the emergence of the parasympathetic neurons from stem-like cells. Alessandro Furlan will defend his thesis in November 2016 and will after that start his post-doc training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, USA.

The Eric K Fernström Prize is awarded to Rickard Sandberg Rickard Sandberg, Professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, is awarded the prize for pioneering single-cell technologies and his important discoveries of gene regulatory mechanisms across mammalian tissues and in singe cells.

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.

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In his research, Rickard Sandberg combines genome-wide experimental and computational techniques to study gene regulation in development and disease. His lab made an important breakthrough with the development of a full-length single-cell transcriptome method that has enabled researchers to explore the diversity of cell types within tissues, together with their complete molecular profile. The method is also important for rare cells in disease, and Rickard Sandberg’s lab was first to molecular profile melanoma-derived circulating tumors cells. The single-cell resolution also enabled the Sandberg lab to discover abundant allelic fluctuations in the transcription of the paternal and maternal chromosomes, important for our understanding of gene expression itself, and how it may effect haploinsufficiency, incomplete penetrance and expressivity of phenotypic traits.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

Photo: Fredrik Persson.

Med dr Axel Hirch’s Prize is awarded to Mats Wahlgren

ABOUT THE PRIZE This prize is awarded annually by the Board of Research at Karolinska Institutet as ”recognition for a scientific article of high value published by a Swedish scientific researcher”. The actual choice of prize winner takes place by way of nomination.

Mats Wahlgren, Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology is awarded the prize for his studies of the mechanisms by which blood group 0 protects against severe malaria. In severe cases of malaria, the infected red blood cells adhere excessively in the microvasculature and block the blood flow, causing oxygen deficiency and tissue damage that can lead to coma, brain damage and, eventually death. Scientists have therefore been keen to learn more about how the parasite Plasmodium falciparum makes the infected red blood cells so sticky. Further, it is known that people of blood group O are protected against severe malaria, while those with other types, such as A, more often fall into a coma and die. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon has therefore been one important objective for malaria research. Mats Wahlgren and his group have identified a new and important piece of the puzzle by describing the key part played by the RIFIN protein. Using data generated in vitro and in animals, he shows how the Plasmodium falciparum parasite synthesizes RIFIN, and how the protein makes its way to the surface of the blood cell, where it acts as an adhesin, a glue. He also demonstrates how RIFIN adheres strongly to the surface of type A red blood cells, but only weakly to group O, and suggests this to be the mechanism that triggers the higher frequency of severe malaria in those of blood group A.

The Håkan Mogren Prize is awarded to Peter Berggren The Håkan Mogren Foundation has awarded its 2016 medical scholarship in recognition of – and for the advancement of – efforts for human well-being to district doctor Peter Berggren. Through his work, he has created good conditions for continuity and the safety for patients in rural areas.

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.

Peter Berggren has worked tirelessly for more than 20 years to tackle the challenges posed by long distances and an ageing population in Västerbotten County. Stationed in Storuman, 250 km northwest of Umeå, he is the only doctor providing out-of-hours care for around 12,000 patients at the same time, in an area the size of the provinces of Halland and Skåne put together. His work has contributed towards brand new care models being devised using advanced remote technology. For example, patients can meet with a dietician or a CBT practitioner via video conferencing, and doctors can listen to a heartbeat or look down into a patient’s throat remotely thanks to various technological solutions. Many doctors and nurses have completed specialist training in this new way of working that Peter Berggren has helped to draw up. Experiences of remote care work have been shared with twin towns and care centres in Australia and Canada. Continuity and safety are the guiding principles in everything that is done.

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PRIZES AND AWARDS

Karolinska Institutet’s Pedagogical Prize is awarded to Dulceaydee Norlander Gigliotti Dulceaydee Norlander Gigliotti, associate professor and director of studies at Comparative Medicine is awarded the prize for having modernized and made the education in laboratory animal science more efficient.

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.

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It has now been five years since Dude Gigliotti started developing the new education in laboratory animal science. There are currently several different courses on different levels on offer for technicians and researchers. A web-based training course in laboratory animal science is of special relevance as it was created in order to meet a new EU directive. Today there is a national consortium in laboratory animal science. In addition to the universities who joined in from the start, Uppsala and Stockholm University as well as the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences are also part of the consortium. More than 2,000 users of laboratory animals have been trained since 2013. KI’s web-based and species specific laboratory animal training courses are the first of their kind in the EU and have not only garnered great attention internationally but also had a positive impact with Swedish animal welfare bodies.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

Lennart Nilsson Award is awarded to Alexey Amunts Alexey Amunts is the recipient of the 2016 Lennart Nilsson Award for his pioneering work in the ongoing “Resolution Revolution” using electron cryogenic microscopy (cryo-EM) to visualize structures of individual proteins in biological materials.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Photo: Shintaro Aibara.

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”.

Alexey Amunts is the head of the national cryo-EM laboratory at SciLifeLab and assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Stockholm University. He and his colleagues were first to tease out the atomic resolution structure of the protein complex regulating a cell’s energy budget and known as the mitoribosome. To get the high-resolution information, Amunts uses cryo-EM, a technique that bombards biological samples with a highly focused electron beam at very cold temperatures (frozen in liquid nitrogen, at about minus 200 degrees Celsius). As the electrons pass through, they interact with the biological sample and scatter, producing projection images. By combining information from hundreds of thousands projections, researchers can recreate the original biological structure, which is essential in order to understand its cellular function and the mechanism of action. Amunts and his team have further applied the methodology to the mitoribosome bound to potentially novel therapeutic compounds. They achieved the first atomic depiction of drug bound mitoribosome, which opens up promising perspectives for structure-based drug design approach by cryo-EM that will make the quest for novel therapeutic interventions much more tractable.

Image of the 3D reconstruction of the mitoribosome obtained through a computational analysis of cryo-EM data. The reconstruction serves as a ‘density map’ into which Amunts and his team fit about 200,000 atoms, like a jigsaw puzzle that when assembled correctly, reveals a complete atomic model. The zoomed in region illustrates that apart from the mitoribosome atoms, an extra density is found (shown as a blue mesh). This density corresponds to a pharmaceutical compound that binds to mitoribosome and have a potential for anticancer treatment.

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PRIZES AND AWARDS

Photo: The Michener Institute.

The Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education is awarded to Brian Hodges

ABOUT THE PRIZE This international prize is awarded for outstanding research in medical education. The purpose of the prize is to recognise and stimulate highquality research in the field and to promote long-term improvements of educational practices in medical training. “Medical” includes all education and training for any health science profession. The prize is made possible through financial support from the Gunnar Höglund and Anna-Stina Malmborg Foundation. It is currently awarded every second year.

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Brian Hodges, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada, is awarded the prize for his research, which has led to changes in the training of health professionals around the world. For example, simulations and assessment of patients’ mental health and students’ communication skills are now included in medical examinations in many countries. Since the early 1990s, Brian Hodges has advocated including simulations and assessment of mental health and communication skills in examinations for all health professionals. This is now standard practice in his native Canada and many other countries. Brian Hodges’ research team was the first in the world to experiment with the validity of complex communication and mental health simulations, which are now part of the medical examination process as well as physical assessment. He stresses the importance of practicing in a safe environment before, for example, dealing with relatives of a dying patient or a patient who is angry or confused. Communication is key for health professionals, both between patient/physician and between colleagues in the medical community, Hodges says. He would therefore like to see a more team-based approach, as the field of medicine is all about teamwork for safer practice. Team-based simulations should be part of all medical environments – in the same way as other professions, where it’s essential to work together as a team, train together to help minimise risks. Brian Hodges is currently working towards having health professionals come back regularly throughout their career to test their clinical and communication skills through simulations.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

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2016 Text Professors: Anders Nilsson (Translations: Neil Betteridge) | Text Adjunct and Visiting Professors: Naomi Lubick 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: Tierps Tryckeri 2016 | ISBN: 978-91-85681-85-3

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