The Swedish Society for Medical Research, SSMF, is providing research funding to two junior researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy: kidney researcher Kerstin Ebefors and dependency researcher Petra Suchankova Karlsson.
Kerstin Ebefors is a member of Jenny Nyström’s research team and is studying molecular mechanisms behind a common kidney disease known as IgA nephritis.
“With time, IgA nephritis may cause the patient to need dialysis or transplantation of a new kidney. Unfortunately, there is no cure, but by increasing knowledge on the underlying molecular changes that occur in the kidney in connection with the disease, we hope to uncover data leading to specific medicines against IgA nephritis,” Kerstin Ebefors explains.
Kerstin Ebefors will now receive funding for two years as post-doc at the University of Michigan, where she will be deepening her research on kidney diseases.
“I will continue to conduct research on kidney diseases while in the US and I will learn how to use systematic biological methods and bioinformatics to progress further with my research,” says Kerstin Ebefors, affirming that the grant means a great deal to her:
“It gives me the opportunity to travel abroad to learn new methods and gain additional merits.”
Petra Suchankova Karlsson completed her PhD at the Sahlgrenska Academy two years ago and recently finished a post-doc year at one of the NIH’s institutes in the US. She now has financing for two years to continue her work on dependency and the reward system in the brain. She is part of a team headed by Jörgen Engel and Elisabet Jerlhag at the pharmacology section while continuing to work with the group at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism where she conducted her post-doc work.
“The two groups have shared research interests, looking at how hormones that stimulate or suppress appetite are involved in diseases of dependency and alcoholism in particular,” explains Petra Suchankova Karlsson, whose objective is to increase the understanding of mechanisms that result in dependency.
In the US, Petra Suchankova Karlsson was involved with a clinical study of the hunger hormone ghrelin, focusing on its effects on alcohol consumption and alcohol cravings. She is also interested in the gastrointestinal hormone GLP-1, which may also be of importance for alcohol dependency. In cooperation with the research group at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, she is also initiating a project using rare brain tissue samples from deceased alcoholics and healthy individuals to study these hormone systems in relevant parts of the brain.
“As far as I know, this is the first time this is being done and it could answer a number of questions regarding the effects of the systems in the human brain,” says Petra Suchankova Karlsson.
