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reSEARCHfor THE FUTURE Acc e
lera tor
SKÅNE’S GIGANTIC MICROSCOPE Neutron
The world’s most powerful synchrotron radiation source is beginning to take shape and is expected to be completed by 2015. The facility will give Sweden and Lund a world-leading position within materials science, energy and life sciences research.
IILLUSTRATION: Rikkard Häggbom
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UNIQUE METHODS TO TACKLE PARKINSON’S Parkinson’s disease has many faces and Multipark’s cross-boundary research hopes to make a difference in patients’ everyday lives, according to Susanne Iwarsson, who is one of the driving forces behind the research project.
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DIABETES – A DIFFICULT RIDDLE TO SOLVE
How do H oes e clima ma ate t chang nge ng e alte te er conditions on earth? In Lund re r sear arch ar cher ch e s are e tryi ying ng to find the answers th hro rough inte erd rdis isciplinar arry co colllaboration that creates new netw tw works, ne new w dyna na ami miccs and n greater und nderst sta anding an nd knowledg ge of cur urrre ent cclimate chang n e issu ues.
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Type 2 diabetes is increasing at an explosive rate and is today one of the most prevalent chronic diseases threatening people’s health around the world. “We know that people´s genes have not changed, so it must be something in our environment and lifestyles that leads people to develop the disease, says Professor Leif Groop, who works at the Division of Diabetes, Metabolism and Endocrinology.”
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Over SEK 4 billion goes to research at Lund University each year. This makes us Sweden’s strongest research university. We believe that cooperation is the answer to how researchers are to solve the increasingly complex problems of society. Therefore, we invest heavily in cross-boundary research in cooperation with the business sector and society. When the Swedish Research Council and Formas, after a review by international experts, allocated the Linnaeus funding, Lund University scooped the jackpot. A total of 14 research environments received funding. This is more than any other higher education institution in Sweden. It was the same story for the strategic research areas, where we were awarded SEK 715 million, divided between a number of strategic areas. This is a sign that we are right to prioritise cross-boundary work for our research today and for the future. In this magazine you can read about a few current examples. In ten years time, the research facilities Max IV and ESS will be in operation. They are expected to create thousands of new jobs and further strengthen the University’s international standing. In order for innovations to be developed in an increasingly complex world, we need greater understanding between individuals and organisations from different fields and countries. I hope you enjoy reading all about the latest research from our University.
Per Eriksson, Vice-Chancellor, Lund University
Editorial staff, Lund University: Lisa Thelin och Bodil Malmström. Tel.switchboard +46 46 222 0000. www.lu.se
www.tabloid.se Produced by: Tabloid Nordic AB Texts: Ola Isaksson, Charlotte Löndahl Bechmann, Liselotte Fritz and Ingela Björck. Photography: Kennet Ruona and Charlotte Carlberg Bärg Graphic design: David Eliasson Repro: Bildrepro. Print: JMS.
SWEDEN´S STRONGEST Lund University has received more research funding than any other Swedish higher education institution in recent years. An important explanation for this, according to Assistant Vice-Chancellor Sven Strömqvist, is a creative, cross-boundary approach that involves all the faculties. “Both large and small issues are best tackled through interdisciplinary cooperation”, says Sven Strömqvist, who has particular responsibility for research and internationalisation at the University. He stresses that the conditions for cooperation are good, not least geographically. In Lund all the departments of the University are within walking or cycling distance of one another, and Sven Strömqvist describes the region as a whole as the most exciting and dynamic in Northern Europe from a research and knowledge perspective. At Lund University cross-disciplinary cooperation permeates everything from pharmaceutical research and nanoscience to languages and music. There are also impressive plans for greater cooperation between research disciplines, the business sector and other universities in Sweden and abroad. The neutron research facility ESS and the
adjacent synchrotron radiation laboratory MAX IV are examples of this cooperation. Here, research will be conducted within fields stretching from climate change, transport and engineering to pharmaceuticals and archaeology. ESS alone is expected to indirectly create thousands of jobs. “It is great that we are building two facilities that will be best in their class for 15–20 years. They will attract researchers and users from all over the world. The magnitude of the research structures here are of a kind we have not experienced before”, says Sven Strömqvist. At the Humanities Laboratory, research is carried out within culture, communication and cognition, in collaboration with science, medicine and engineering. The aim is for students and young researchers to realise from the beginning the value of cooperation with other academic disciplines. “Larger environments give new opportunities. Our organisation means that it is easy to develop a relevant network from different disciplines to address a common issue. My vision for the future is even greater coordination of large, complex research areas.” Sven Strömqvist sees proof that the University has prioritised correctly in the fact that 14 research environments at Lund University were awarded Linnaeus funding of SEK 900 million from Formas and the Swedish Research Council.
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YOUNG RESEARCHERS OF THE FUTURE A few years ago Emma Sparr, research fellow in physical chemistry, was awarded SEK 8.5 million in funding from the Strategic Research Foundation within the framework of the “Future Research Leaders” programme.
RESEARCH UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY RANKINGS Lund University is highly ranked in many international comparisons of higher education and has been consistently placed in the world’s top 100 universities in recent years. Lund University is the highest placed comprehensive university in Scandinavia, according to the Times Higher Education 2010 rankings. • Top 100 university: 89th place in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2010 • Top 100 university: 72nd place in the QS Ranking 2010 • Top 150 university in the Shanghai Jiao
Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU 2010) • Among the top 10 universities in Europe for student exchange and number 1 in Sweden
THE UNIVERSITY • 8 faculties
PEOPLE • 46 000 individual students • 28 000 full-time equivalent students • 2 800 research students • 6 000 employees • 1 360 professors, lecturers and others with a doctoral degree
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS • 3 000 international students (approximate total per year) • 2 000 exchange students per year • 680 partner universities in 50 countries
“I am motivated by all the input I get from the doctoral students in the research group and from cooperation with others who have expertise in completely different areas from me”, says Emma Sparr. Dr Sparr works in one of Lund University’s interdisciplinary Linnaeus environments, Organising Molecular Matter, which has received funding from the Swedish Research Council. In her research she studies membranes and their physical characteristics. The results are expected to provide new knowledge, for example for the design of drugs. “The skin is one example of an attractive way to take in medication because it avoids injections and tablets”, says Emma Sparr. Her specialisation has also attracted attention outside academia. Emma Sparr has entered into cooperation with the company L’Oréal in Paris, perhaps most well known for skin creams, looking at how water can be transported into the skin. At the planned neutron research facility ESS, one of the materials it will be possible to study is membranes. Emma Sparr sees this as an important complement to her research. “The University and the research here could also become more dynamic, as there will be people coming here from a number of different areas of activity. Having this in such close proximity will mean many new opportunities for cooperation”, says Emma Sparr.
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We meet the challenges of the future by daring to take risks and invest in those issues and research fields that are not yet well established. Gifts and donations play a key role in this. Our ability to be creative and innovative in the face of increasing international competition is also strengthened by collaboration with the business sector and society. Together with the organisations, companies and individuals who support our research, we lay the foundation for long-term development. Sven Strömqvist Assistant Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for research
SEK 25 MILLION TO RHETORIC Four years ago, Christian W. Jansson, MD of the clothing company KappAhl, donated SEK 25 million to Lund University. The money that the former Lund student gave out of his own pocket is earmarked for a permanent chair in Rhetoric. The multi-million kronor donation is a result of Christian W. Jansson’s strong interest in language. Or the magic of language, as he puts it – an expression he has inherited from his father. “My dad had a passionate interest in language; how important it is to choose the right words for the right target audience. And in our everyday lives, rhetoric is much more common than we might imagine.” After taking a degree in economics at Lund University in the 1970s, Christian W. Jansson lived abroad for 20 years. But he kept in touch
MD of KappAhl Christian W. Janson’s interest in ‘the magic of language’ has led to an SEK 25 million donation to Lund University for a permanent chair in rhetoric.
with Lund. The people he got to know there still mean a lot to him privately. When he moved back to Sweden from the USA in the early 1990s, it was natural for him to return to the city. He is following the new chair in Rhetoric with interest. Once a year he meets Professor Anders Sigrell, who tells him about his activities over lunch, as laid down in the agreement. Christian W. Jansson chose to make his investment public. “There are a lot of other people who are lucky enough to be in a similar financial position to me. I hope that they will be inspired by this idea
and give away part of what they have.” He hopes that the chair will help to increase interest in oral presentation and make more people realise the value of rhetoric. “In the USA, children have the subject ‘speech’ on their school timetable”, says Christian W. Jansson, who thinks that more attention will be paid to oral discourse in Sweden as well in the future. As a tool for leaders, rhetoric is indispensable, he says, taking himself as an example. “What I do at KappAhl is primarily rhetorical activity. I either write or I speak.”
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Gunnar Lidén, Professor of Chemical Engineering and one of the coordinators of LU Biofuels: “the oil will soon run out and we need to find new sources of energy.”
CODE FOR THE FUTURE CAN BE FOUND IN THE EARTH “We have long been speaking about ‘peak oil’, the point in time when crude oil production peaks before then falling. We will probably arrive at that point very soon, if we are not there already. There is no doubt that many new processes to produce fuels will be needed in the future”, says Gunnar Lidén, Professor of Chemical Engineering and one of the coordinators of the LU Biofuels initiative. The end of the oil era is inevitably close, yet criticism is also voiced about the production of biofuels in developing countries. There are strong incentives to further develop biofuels sustainably, and this requires new technology. Gunnar Lidén shows us round the large preprocessing plant at Kemicentrum, which attracts interested researchers from around the world. Here different types of biomass such as chippings and straw are separated for conversion into fuels such as ethanol, methane and hydrogen gas. “We have made a lot of progress, but more research is needed to improve the economics of the process. We have to combine the right pre-processing method with the right enzymes and the right
micro-organism to convert all the types of sugar in the cellulose. It is also important to make use of other products from the raw material to make the process as a whole sustainable and cost-effective. “The pilot plant, which has been run by Sekab in Örnsköldsvik since 2004, offers an important opportunity to demonstrate the technology. This cooperation is important to us.” A few floors higher up in the building is Marie Gorwa-Grauslund, newly appointed Professor of Microbiology and one of the 60 researchers involved in the LU Biofuels initiative. Her research group has, with the help of DNA technology, developed new yeast species that are more efficient at converting all the types of sugar in the biomass into ethanol. “We have made a lot of progress and increased both the speed of the process and the amount of ethanol obtained in relation to the amount of sugar. Our research has led to a number of patent applications and patents. Some of these have already been sold to companies, who sell the yeast for ethanol production from biomass.” Ethanol production requires enzymes to break down the cellulose in the biomass to sugar and to convert the sugar to alcohol. Developing more costeffective and tailored enzymes is a major challenge. “We have begun working on a new method. We extract DNA from normal topsoil, which is rich in
Marie Gorwa-Grausland, newly appointed Professor of Microbiology.
micro-organisms. We then use the DNA to create a gene database that we use to isolate new enzymes for efficient use of all the types of sugar. “We are facing a paradigm shift and are seeing a whole new industry for fuel and chemical production come into being”, says Gunnar Lidén. But the researchers face major challenges. Meeting these requires coordinated efforts from many different disciplines, and this is the reason for the LU Biofuels initiative. “Close cooperation with industry and an intensive dialogue with politicians, both nationally and internationally, are needed to facilitate the transition.” www.lubiofuels.org
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UNIQUE PARKINSON’S RESEARCH Professor Susanne Iwarsson is one of the researchers within MultiPark in Lund, where a cross-boundary research environment that takes a holistic approach to the many faces of Parkinson’s disease is now emerging.
Susanne Iwarsson and her colleagues are busy drawing up guidelines for the research within MultiPark. “We will be studying the entire chain of Parkinson’s disease; from experimental preclinical research to what everyday life in the home and surroundings is like for sufferers”, says Susanne Iwarsson. This is an entirely new way of working when it comes to research on Parkinson’s disease. Neuroscience at Lund University is at the forefront with regard to experimental preclinical research on Parkinson’s disease. The
research on stem cell transplants from foetuses to individuals with Parkinson’s disease has received a lot of attention. “Neuroscience has long been a very strong field. However, what has been missing has been the healthcare perspective. The foundation has been laid by a few nurses and physiotherapists who have got involved in research focusing on neuroscience, but we need to gather our strength and receive more investment if we are to make significant progress.” Susanne Iwarsson has previously worked as an occupational therapist. “For an occupational therapist, the diagnosis is not the primary concern, but rather the consequences of the disease or injury. As an occupational therapist I work to help the individual manage their everyday lives. This could mean making it possible for the patient to fulfil their parenting role or to hold down a job – obvious things that make life worth living”, she says. Being able to have a functioning everyday
Parkinson’s disease has many faces and Multipark’s cross-boundary research aims to make a difference in patients’ everyday lives, says Susanne Iwarsson.
life is an important aspect for those suffering from Parkinson’s. “There is currently no cure for the disease. Instead we delay the development of the disease, which means that the individual lives
SIMPLER METHOD TO DIAGNOSE CANCER In the future, it will be possible to diagnose different types of cancer with a simple blood test.
Carl Borrebaeck, programme director for CREATE Health.
“We use a pattern of different biomarkers in the blood to find out what type of cancer it is”, say Carl Borrebaeck, Professor of Immunotechnology and programme director for the translational cancer research centre CREATE Health at Lund University, and Christer Wingren, reader in Immunotechnology, who both have high hopes for future cancer care. The biomarkers in the blood sample could be described as a fingerprint which indicates disease. Biomarkers are proteins that origi-
nate from both the tumour itself and the immune system’s response to it. Within healthcare today, a small number of markers are used when diagnosing various diseases. There is still no good way to use individual biomarkers to diagnose cancer, but the new research has found a certain number of proteins that are different for different types of cancer. The researchers in Lund are focusing mainly on breast cancer and pancreatic cancer. “There is currently no good way to diagnose pancreatic cancer,
which means that the tumours are generally discovered very late and the patients often receive a poor prognosis”, says Dr Wingren. For patients who have recently developed breast cancer, the fiveyear survival rate is good, but for the quarter of women who are affected by relapse, the rate is considerably lower. “We hope to be able to identify these women at an early stage and adapt the treatment to the relapse risk”, says Carl Borrebaeck. The two researchers hope to
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longer with the effects of it.” According to Susanne Iwarsson, this is one of the reasons why it is so important to take into account the healthcare perspective in the research and to work across boundaries. “We will cooperate both with the researchers at the lab and with the Swedish Parkinson Academy at Skåne University Hospital. With the healthcare perspective we can together find clearer answers to how different treatments affect patients’ lives. We also want to be able to better map the obstacles that can exist in the home, the patients’ experience of their care and how the individual could become more active and continue to participate in society. “By working across boundaries within MultiPark, I hope to help ensure that the discoveries made in the laboratory make a difference in patients’ everyday lives sooner”, says Susanne Iwarsson.
ILLUSTRATION: Rikkard Häggbom
be able to offer the method as an experimental diagnosis at Skåne University Hospital within one or two years. Patients in southern Sweden will in this case be the first in the world to be offered this form of treatment.
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DIABETES – A DIFFICULT RIDDLE TO SOLVE Type 2 diabetes has increased at an explosive rate in recent decades and is today one of the most prevalent chronic diseases threatening people’s health around the world. The greatest increase has been seen in countries such as India and China, as well as in the Middle East.
FOTO: Anna Holmquist / Bildarkivet.se
“We know that people’s genes have not changed in recent decades, so it must be something in the environment, in our lifestyle, that leads to an increasing number of people developing the disease”, says Professor Leif Groop, who works at the Division of Diabetes, Metabolism and Endocrinology at Lund University. Leif Groop has spent his entire working life trying to understand type 2 diabetes. In recent years, great progress has been made in research and Professor Groop hopes to come closer to an answer on the causes of the disease. Even if the disease is linked to our lifestyle, people are not all affected to the same extent. “It is our genes that decide how we react to changes in our surroundings. The solution is thus to be found in the interaction between our genes and our lifestyles”, explains Leif Groop. This is why the researchers are today trying
Professor Leif Groop is sleuthing for the pieces of the jigsaw to better understand diabetes.
The greatest increase in cases of type 2 diabetes globally is seen in Asia and especially India. Picture: Mumbai.
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STEM CELL THERAPY PROVIDES HOPE OF A CURE
to map genes to understand the causes of the disease. Leif Groop had no plans to go into genetics research when he started work as a doctor in Finland in the 1970s. At that time, diabetes care was insufficient and Professor Groop started working to initiate self-care. After this, he developed an interest in the disease. “I became fascinated by the diversity of the disease and began conducting research in order to find out more.” When the research community began taking an interest in genetics in the 1980s, Leif Groop realised that this could be an important tool to understand more about the disease. In the early 1990s, Leif Groop began cooperating with one of the world’s foremost geneticists, Eric Lander. Since then, he and his research colleagues have been trying to find the genes that are related to type 2 diabetes. “Today we have a list of over 30 genes that increase the risk of the disease. The most important gene, TCF7L2, which we are currently studying, has been shown to significantly increase the risk. We are now looking at which other genes it activates.” Leif Groop and his colleagues are also studying GIP, which plays an important role in how we absorb food. “There have been very strong developments in technology over recent years, which means that we will be able to map the entire genome within a few years. This is a prerequisite if we are to understand what causes the disease.” Leif Groop’s dream is to be able to understand diabetes; not only to catalogue the genes that are involved, but also to use the information to provide effective treatment. “It is our own imagination that limits the research. If we set it free we can achieve great things!”
TYPE 2-DIABETES... ...is more hereditary than type 1. In patients with type 2 diabetes, the ability to produce insulin is not completely absent, but the amount of insulin produced is not sufficient for the body’s needs.
GIP... ...is a substance that is important for the release of insulin after a meal.
For many serious diseases such as type 1 diabetes, stem cell therapy could in the future form a possible treatment. Researchers at Lund University have spent the past decade working intensively to develop the technique. A stem cell could be referred to as the ‘mother’ of all cells. By stimulating the stem cell, re-
searchers try to get it to develop into a particular type of cell, for example an insulin-producing cell. These cells could then be transplanted into a person with type 1 diabetes, whose own insulin-producing cells do not work. “One of our research groups has succeeded in getting stem cells to develop in the right way, but it is not enough that the cells can produce insulin. They must also be able to read the glucose level in the blood
in order to produce the right amount”, explains Leif Groop, a professor at Lund University who works in the diabetes and endocrinology division. No-one can say how far the researchers are from developing a solution that could be used in healthcare. “When it happens, it can go very quickly. Often it is a case of finding the last piece of the jigsaw that no-one had thought of”, says Leif Groop.
NANOTECHNOLOGY IN BOTH DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT Lund University is at the forefront when it comes to research on nanoparticles and Maria Kempe, senior lecturer in Biomedical Polymer Technology, sees great possibilities with the new technique. Within the field of medicine, nanoparticles can be used in both diagnosis and treatment. “The particles can be homing, i.e. they bind to a certain molecule in the body. By seeing
where in the body the particles gather, we can use the technique to make diagnoses”, explains Dr Kempe. Nanoparticles can also be loaded with a drug. By guiding the drug-carrying particle to the right place in the body, treatment becomes more effective and there are fewer side effects. Maria Kempe and her research group have developed magnetic nanoparticles that can
be guided with the help of magnets to metallic implants, such as stents in the coronary arteries. By linking a clot-busting drug to the particles, it has been possible to dissolve a blood clot in a stent. The nanoparticles could in this way be used to stop an incipient heart attack. “The particles could also carry other drugs, for example antibiotics to an infection around an implant”, says Maria Kempe.
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INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO CLIMATE ISSUES At the beginning of the year, Lund University started the new Centre for Environmental and Climate Research. “This is a unique venture. Working across boundaries is the only way to deal with the complex issues of climate change. We share our research with one another, build new networks and new dynamics”, says Henrik Smith, Professor of Ecology and head of the new centre. In his research, Henrik Smith took an early interest in reductions in certain bird populations and in biodiversity in the agricultural landscape. As coordinator of the BECC research programme, his task is to analyse how climate change affects biodiversity and ecosystem services – primarily within forest, agricultural and subarctic ecosystems. “Climate change leads to altered conditions for farming and could entail increased investments in biofuels. How does this then affect the biodiversity that has already been significantly reduced in agricultural landscapes? This could also have
a direct effect on agriculture if, for example, pollinators and pests change”, says Henrik Smith. Is it possible to put a price on the services that plants and animals provide for humans in an agricultural landscape, such as ladybirds that eat pests or bees that pollinate? Finding new ways to value ecosystem services in economic terms is one example of issues with which research groups within BECC will be working. “Another important task is to present material on which to base future forestry and agriculture policies that can benefit from our research results”, says Henrik Smith. His colleague Markku Rummukainen, professor at the Department of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, coordinates the MERGE research programme. This is about developing advanced climate models for research and scenarios of how the biosphere influences and is influenced by climate change. “When the climate changes, vegetation and ecosystems are affected, which in turn leads to further climate change. These are complex connections which can only be understood using interdisciplinary cooperation. We need to have good information on which to base today’s cli-
mate policy decisions on measures, because they determine the future climate”, says Markku Rummukainen, who has almost 15 years experience of climate modelling. Within BECC and MERGE, work is carried out with reference groups from different sectors of society, which contribute ideas and respond to the research that is carried out. Reaching out with research results into society and to decision makers is a high priority. “Research is exciting in itself, but research for research’s sake is not enough. The knowledge must be made available and accessible and come to good use”, says Markku Rummukainen. “Ultimately, our research is about understanding the climate measures needed for emissions and adaptations in areas such as forestry and agriculture, and developing strategies to preserve biodiversity”, concludes Henrik Smith.
FACTS The new venture has been made possible through grants to two interdisciplinary research projects on climate change – BECC and MERGE.
www.cec.lu.se
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LEDS TO REPLACE LIGHT BULBS IN YOUR HOME Cheap and efficient LEDs developed from research at the Nanometer Consortium in Lund could dramatically reduce electricity consumption. Now that traditional light bulbs have been outlawed and are being phased out, cheap and efficient replacements are needed. At the Nanometer Consortium in Lund, researchers have developed a technique for manufacturing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by carefully controlling how nanowires grow on silicon plates. The technique is being commercialised by the company Glo, which has opened a pilot plant in the Danish town of Lyngby and an office and development laboratory in Silicon Valley, where the LED technique will be adapted for mass production. “In a year or two, the LEDS will be under production and competing out on the market”, says Professor of Physics Lars Samuelson, who heads the Nanometer Consortium in Lund and who has been named as one of the world’s most productive nanotechnology researchers by the journal Nanoletters. Today lighting consumes almost 25 per cent of all electricity. When the nanodiodes, which are ten times more efficient than traditional light bulbs, have become sufficiently cheap, LEDs are expected to take over most of the market, which could result in reductions in electricity consumption of up to 20 per cent, explains Lars Samuelson. He has great hopes for the nanowire technology for other future, sustainable energy solutions. The Lund-based company Sol Voltaics, founded
When the nano-LEDs become sufficiently cheap for the market, electricity consumption could be reduced by 20 per cent, predicts Lars Samuelsson, head of the Nanometer Consortium in Lund.
by Lars Samuelson, has successfully built solar cells with the help of semiconductor nanowires. Now it is going over to a new technique, where the nanowires are built up in the aerosol phase and can be deposited on cheap material.
“This is a wholly unique technique that means that we can produce solar cells on large surfaces at low cost. Solar cells on roofs, light-emitting panels or wallpaper on walls – the new technique offers endless possibilities.”
STRONG CONTROL INSTRUMENTS FOR MORE EFFICIENT ENERGY USE In Spain and Germany ‘feedin tariffs’ have encouraged investments in wind power and small-scale solar power. In Denmark, construction rules and certification systems have encouraged improvements to energy efficiency in buildings. “Many types of strong control instruments are needed to encourage development towards a sustainable society”, says Professor Lena Neij, head of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. Professor Neij conducts research on the effectiveness of energy policy control instruments, primarily in the construction sector, which is responsible for 36 per cent of Sweden’s total energy consumption. “There are tremendous opportunities to save energy in new construction and renovation. The EU will soon introduce requirements for all new
buildings to be virtually ‘zero energy’ by 2020, i.e. the buildings should produce as much energy as they consume. EU directives, standards, taxes, grants and tax rebates are all ways to speed up development towards more low-energy construction. Cooperation and knowledge transfer are other ways. Together with the City of Malmö and Lund Municipality, Lund University has started Miljöbyggprogra m Syd (Environmenta l Construction Programme South). The programme is aimed at building contractors who want to build on municipal land. By means of A, B and C classification the construction companies can choose how ambitious they want to be in terms of energy, internal environment and damp proofing. The construction projects are followed up using an Internet-based platform. “There is strong interest in sustainable construction at regional level. We must work with various support systems, as well as becoming better at evaluating and learning from what we have done.”
Professor Lena Neij, head of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University conducts research on sustainable construction in Skåne in cooperation with the City of Malmö and Lund Municipality.
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MEDICAL IMAGES CHANGE PEOPLE’S VIEW OF THEMSELVES Bioimaging has had a great impact within medicine. But how do medical images of the human body influence society and culture? This is the subject of the research conducted by Max Liljefors, Reader in History of Art and Visual Studies at Lund University.
“Today, bioimaging technologies such as computer tomography (CT), MRI and PET can produce images of the inside of the human body that far exceed what was previously possible in terms of precision and amount of information.” A lot of medical research and diagnostics has become
image-based, in Max Liljefors’s view. “But in our digital age, medical images spread quickly in society outside the laboratory, and have an impact on our understanding of both the human body and science”, he says. Historically, people have always been interested in medical images that show the body in a way we cannot perceive with the eye. “We know what we look like on the outside, but only a millimetre or so under the skin, the body is perceived as unreal and that fascinates us. It is no coincidence that entertainment programmes such as CSI and popular science magazines contain many such images”, says Max Liljefors. He thinks there are a lot of aspects within this advanced technology that can also be linked to research in the humanities. “Bioimaging is part of our visual culture and can influence and explain how we perceive our own bodies.”.
ROBOTS BECOME MORE HUMAN The focus should not be on the gadget but on how people use it. This is the view of Peter Gärdenfors, Professor of Cognitive Science and one of the brains behind the increasingly human behaviour of robots and machines.
“A well designed gadget doesn’t need an instruction book”, says Peter Gärdenfors. In the long run he hopes that everything from everyday information systems in ticket machines to industrial robots will be able to perceive the desires of the user, for example based on body movements. The road there passes via a better understanding of human perception, which is then transferred to the machines. “Robots need to cooperate and plan together. For example, in cramped industrial spaces, a robot should be able to determine where it should move to avoid colliding with a person or another robot.” For the past couple of years, Peter Gärdenfors has been responsible for the interdisciplinary research environment ‘Thinking in time: Cognition, communication
and learning’, which was awarded SEK 75 million from the Swedish Research Council in Linnaeus funding. The focus of the research is on how people understand and learn to understand communication. “The public often doesn’t think about how many information systems a person encounters during a normal day. New touch screen technology brings new possibilities, but it must be designed in a way that helps the user move forward.” The research group is made up of researchers from cognitive science, neurophysiology, speech and language pathology, linguistics and psychology. “We form a bridge between humanities and science. Through interdisciplinary cooperation we can really get to grips with these issues”, says Peter Gärdenfors.
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PUFENDORF INSTITUTE:
EPIGENETIC INSIGHTS “Very rewarding”. “Has given me a network for future work”. “A fantastic environment in which to work”. “A tremendous resource!”
Development psychologist Elia Psoun got involved with epigenetics through the Pufendorf Institute.
THE PUFENDORF INSTITUTE named after Samuel von Pufendorf, one of LU’s first professors – was inaugurated in May 2009. The idea was to create a meeting place where researchers from widely differing fields could analyse or cooperate on complex issues or broad topics. The Institute’s first project, ‘Epigenetics’, has involved 13 researchers who worked for just over a year. The project ‘After the Crisis’ (on the effects of the financial crisis) is currently underway, and the project ‘Astrobiology’ has just started. The Institute also supports other initiatives, known as ‘advanced study groups’. Among these is currently a multidisciplinary project on light and its effects on people, and a project on antibiotic resistance.
EPIGENETICS Epigenetics is about how the structure of our genetic make-up can decide the ‘expression’ of a certain gene, i.e. whether or not the gene is active. Even if the same DNA sequence exists in all the cells in our bodies, only certain genes are active within each cell type. It is this difference in gene expression that makes a brain cell different from a skin cell, for example. Epigenetics is nowadays often believed to form the link between environment and health. Both psychosocial factors (stress, bullying, inadequate care, etc.) and chemical factors (environmental toxins, tobacco, alcohol, substances in food, etc.) are believed to make certain genes either active or inactive by means of epigenetic changes. These changes can be reversed, and many new pharmaceuticals are therefore expected to focus on epigenetic processes that cause diseases.
The participants in the first project at the Pufendorf Institute, ‘Epigenetics’, are pleased. Even if there was some uncertainty at the beginning, the end result, in the form of new knowledge and new possibilities for cooperation, has been well worth the effort. The Pufendorf Institute is Lund University’s first ’institute for advanced studies’, where researchers from different disciplines can be released from their daily routines to study issues of common interest. The Institute was started last summer and its first interdisciplinary project, ‘Epigenetics’ (see fact box), concluded in August. The participants in the epigenetics project were hand-picked from different disciplines. There was one researcher in law, one in economic history, two in humanities, one in social sciences, one in psychology and seven in medicine, specialising in diabetes research, cancer research and occupational and environmental medicine. They started with seminars, at which the different disciplines gave presentations of their work for one another, and where the nonmedics got a basic course in epigenetics. Development psychology researcher Elia Psouni was one of the participants. “It was a major challenge, because the Pufendorf Institute had not chosen an easy topic to start with. And we approached it from different traditions, different disciplines and different levels of knowledge, so it is no surprise if there were some hitches at the beginning. But for a first attempt, I think it has been excellent”, she says. As a development psychologist, Elia Psouni thinks that epigenetics – how the genes in our genetic make-up become active or inactive – could form the biological basis for various development problems in children and young people. This has also begun to come up at research conferences within her field. “Through the Pufendorf cooperation I have gained a lot of knowledge of key concepts within epigenetics. I understand the terms, know what is technically possible, understand the statistical problems, and so on. The fact is that at the international psychology conferences I attended in the summer, I was probably one of the few who could follow the epigenetics arguments”, she says.
Epigenetics, like genetic engineering, can lead to many questions. For example, the question of responsibility for health and illness; if it is possible to understand exactly how poor diet harms health, does that increase the individual’s responsibility for eating healthily? Or will it become possible to buy one’s freedom through new medicines that reverse the epigenetic changes, and then continue to consume sweet and fatty foods? And will society gain more responsibility for a good environment in housing districts and schools, now that we are gradually going to get to know more and more about how a poor environment causes epigenetic harm? The Pufendorf Institute works on major projects that involve many researchers over a relatively long period of time. Alongside these there have been smaller study groups on multiresistant bacteria, soot particles and multi-disciplinary light research. Light research is one area where the Swedish Energy Agency has spoken of the possibility of starting a Swedish interdisciplinary research institute, something that the Pufendorf Institute hopes to see.
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NEGOTIATION EXPERT SEEKS SUSTAINABLE PEACE How should one go about creating just and sustainable peace? And how can the EU help to create this in the Western Balkans and the Middle East? These are questions that occupy Karin Aggestam, negotiation expert, reader in Political Science and head of Peace and Conflict Studies at Lund University.
Karin Aggestam, negotiation expert and head of Peace and Conflict Studies at Lund University, doesn’t just want to sit at her desk, but wants to get out into the field to learn more about mediation and negotiation.
All over the world there are deadlocked and apparently unsolvable conflicts, such as the one between Israel and Palestine in the Middle East and the one in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Balkans. “The difficulties in achieving sustainable peace are closely linked to the view of fairness and the possibility of reconciliation between groups”, says Karin Aggestam, reader in Political
Science at Lund University and head of ‘Just and durable peace by piece’, a major research project on sustainable peace in the Middle East and the Western Balkans, which is taking place in cooperation with seven universities in three different countries and is funded by the European Union. Dr Aggestam names the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one example of the difficulty of finding answers to issues of fairness. “Issues of fairness are very problematic because they are strongly linked to the writing of history. If we look at Israel and Palestine, there are completely different views of history and thus also of the two sides’ rights. This creates a deadlocked situation”, explains Dr Aggestam. In the same way, the reconciliation process in Bosnia-Herzegovina is about addressing historical events. If this is not done, the conflict becomes frozen.
SKÅNE’S GIGANTIC MICROSCOPE It has been likened to a giant microscope and will become the world’s most powerful synchrotron radiation source. For Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen, Professor of Synchrotron Radiation Physics and pro-dean of the Faculty of Science, the work to link the right expertise to the MAX IV research facility has begun. A number of the researchers in question already work at Lund University. “Sweden and Lund will be a world leading centre for research within materials science, energy technology and life sciences”, says Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen. MAX IV is expected to attract a broad range of researchers from widely different fields. Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen lists environmental engineering, cancer and medical research, archaeology and energy as examples of disciplines. In other words, the importance of MAX IV stretches far beyond physics. “There is interest in synchrotron radiation on a wide front. Previously it was perhaps mostly physicists who conducted the experiments. But today it is an important instrument, for example, for looking at different substances in a cell within biology or medical research”, says Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen. Today MAX-lab employs around 100 people. When MAX IV is completed, that figure is expected to climb to 300–400. The new facility will, just like today’s MAX-lab, focus on a cir-
When MAX IV comes into operation in 2015 it will have 300–400 employees and thousands of researchers will visit or use the facility every year. One of the driving forces behind it is Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen, Professor of Synchrotron Radiation Physics.
cular electron accelerator that produces light used to study different materials. The light is conducted out of the accelerator in ‘beamlines’ to experiment stations. There are a small number of similar research stations in other locations in Europe and the USA, but MAX IV will be the most powerful. “We will be able to study materials at nanolevel. For cancer research, for example, this
will mean new methods of studying tissue and thus detecting cancer more easily”, says Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen. The expertise for MAX IV will partly be sought abroad, but a number of prominent international researchers who will be linked to the facility already work in Lund or at other universities or university colleges in Scandinavia. Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen is leading the recruitment work.
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The EU is an important player both in the Middle East and in the Balkans. “The EU finds itself in a remarkable situation today, as there is no ‘exit strategy’ in its peace commitments”, observes Karin Aggestam. As a researcher, Karin Aggestam likes to evaluate, problematise and critically review different issues and situations in order to learn new lessons from different types of peace process. She sees a number of problems with the EU as a peacemaker, as the Union wants to create a liberal peace, i.e. a peace grounded on certain perceptions regarding free elections, a market economy and human rights. “The idea behind liberal peace is that liberal states do not go to war, but this also means that peace processes are sometimes forced, for example by imposing elections at too early a stage, which can be counterproductive”, she says.
LIGHT RESEARCH PUTS INTERDISCIPLINARITY TO THE TEST New technology has raised interest in light research, but in order to achieve successful results, different academic fields need to work together. At Lund University the conditions are right, according to Thorbjörn Laike, Reader in Environmental Psychology.
This protein was determined based on data collected at Max-lab by the company SARomics Biostructures.
FACTS • MAX IV is funded by the Swedish Research Council, Vinnova, Region Skåne and Lund University. Construction began in September 2010 and is expected to be finished by 2015. • Synchrotron radiation is very intense electromagnetic radiation that is created by accelerating electrons in a storage ring.
“It takes a lot of work to find the right resources and people. It is about coordinating the interest in different research fields and building a team”, she says. In addition to the permanent posts, MAX IV will be an open research environment that will be visited and used by thousands of researchers every year. “Once we have managed to construct the right beamlines, I think we will quite quickly be doing important and groundbreaking experiments here. But in order to reach that point we must make the right decisions and work with a long-term perspective”, says Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen.
In the early 2000s, researchers discovered receptors in the eye that have nothing to do with sight, but which are instead directly linked to wakefulness and sleep. Since then, research on daylight and artificial light has boomed. The Department of Architecture and the Built Environment at Lund University has long experience of light research. Since the 1970s researchers have studied light’s nonvisual effects on people. “When the incandescent light bulb was invented in 1879, we could suddenly turn night to day, and that changed our way of life. However, since the invention of the fluorescent tube in the 1940s, not a lot has happened – until now”, says Thorbjörn Laike, Reader in Environmental Psychology at Lund University. The new LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are based on nanotechnology and produce light in a completely different way from traditional light bulbs and fluorescent tubes. The technology makes it possible to create a dynamic light, adapted to the situation. The effects of diode light on humans have not yet been mapped fully. However, more progress has been made in research on how plants react to the light. It has shown that plants thrive better in the new light than in the yellow light from sodium lamps, which are often used in greenhouses. “With the new LED technology it is possible to generate the right type of light that
gives the plants what they need, while significantly reducing energy consumption”, says Thorbjörn Laike. In order to achieve new results within light research, a number of different disciplines within academia have begun to work together. Light is not only about physics, but also biology, medicine, aesthetics and psychology. Thorbjörn Laike is one of those behind the initiative, and he says that light research is made for interdisciplinary cooperation, because it has to be studied from a number of different angles. It was first when light research began to be treated as an interdisciplinary subject that he realised the breadth of different skills that exists at Lund University. “Light research is not a discipline that one field can manage to undertake alone. At the same time, you have to remember that interdisciplinary work is not easy.” One problem is that light is described in many different ways. Step one is therefore to find shared terminology to describe light. The next step is to reach out to the public so that people can more easily choose between new light sources. “The aim is to create functional lighting that provides a good environment for people and that leads to reduced energy consumption without loss of quality.” Thorbjörn Laike hopes that the developments within light research will continue at the same pace as over the past decade. In the future he also hopes to see a competence centre for interdisciplinary light research in Lund. “Then we will be in a good position to fill in the gaps that there are. We have had a look at the USA, where there is a Lighting Research Center, and we think there is a lot to gain from allowing researchers from different fields to gather in the same place”, he says.
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