Fredrik Bertz, Malin Björnsdotter, Cecilia Bull, Anna-Karin Hultgård Ekwall, Madelene Lindqvist, Linda Lundblad, Gustaf Rydell and Simona Sacuiu are the eight young researchers who have been awarded Sahlgrenska Academy repatriation grants 2014.
The grants are part of the faculty’s strategy for encouraging and supporting young researchers. The goal is for each recipient to use the SEK 500,000 as a stepping stone to a career at Sahlgrenska Academy.
Fredrik Bertz received a PhD from the Department of Clinical Nutrition in 2012. His thesis looked at diet and exercise as an aid in weight loss following childbirth. His completed his postdoc at Cornell University under Professor David A. Levitsky.
“As a leading university, Cornell conducts world-class nutritional research,” Dr. Bertz says. “I applied specifically to work with Professor Levitsky, who has spent almost half a century studying regulation of body weight. That kind of knowledge is vital to reversing the trend toward widespread overweight and obesity.” He points out that 1 out of every 2 Swedes are overweight these days.
The team of researchers at Cornell combines psychology and nutritional science to explain how and why people choose their diets, along with ways to deal with the barrage of food and appetite stimuli that typifies modern society.
“As a dietitian, I know that maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is easy in theory but that overeating is the norm no matter how knowledgeable and determined people have become,” Dr. Bertz says. “I had the opportunity to work on an elegant intervention that counteracts some aspects of our food-oriented culture. Professor Levitsky has been developing the concept over the past decade.”
Participants weigh themselves once a day on a special scale that provides graphic electronic feedback.
“The method has worked quite well during our tests, which represents a revolutionary breakthrough,” Dr. Bertz says. “It also fits quite well into the new quantified self and eHealth paradigm. A number of exciting options lie ahead when it comes to additional research that can lead to specific clinical applications.”
After receiving a PhD from the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology in 2009, Malin Björnsdotter completed her postdoc at Karolinska Institutet, Yale University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“My goal was to experience various places and cultures so that I could gain a new perspective on life,” Dr. Björnsdotter says. “Hopefully I will be both a more aware person and a better researcher as a result.
“I could write volumes about my year in Singapore. “I have developed deep respect for other ways of looking at the world, research and education while more fully appreciating what the Swedish system has to offer.”
Dr. Björnsdotter has worked closely with the Gillberg Center over the past year, contributing her expertise in the areas of sensory physiology and brain imaging.
Cecilia Bull received a PhD from the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology in 2008 under the supervision of Peter Eriksson. Her thesis examined the ability of the brain to recover, emphasizing the role of exercise after radiation injuries. She completed her postdoc at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond over a period of five years—first as a member of a research team directed by Pamela Knapp, her examiner, and then a team directed by Scott M. Bowers. Both directors are well-known in the field. Dr. Bull’s postdoc project explored stem cell survival and maturity in various HIV models, along with the role of neuroglia cells in drug addiction.
Her years in Virginia greatly improved her self-confidence as a researcher.
“I’m much more willing to deal with complicated questions now,” she says. “Even experiments that are extremely intricate can be pulled off successfully.”
Dr. Bull’s research frequently uses stereology, a highly precise method of estimating volumes, lengths and the number of cells or particles in a structure. While at Virginia Commonwealth, she proceeded from animal models to measure motivation and underlying molecular processes, as well as designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) to stimulate neuroglia cells in specific areas of the brain.
Anna-Karin Ekwall, M.D., is in the process of completing her postdoc at the University of California San Diego. She is very pleased about the grant and believes that it will make it much easier to start conducting research at Sahlgrenska Academy.
“This kind of support and encouragement makes me feel that I am welcome back in Gothenburg while giving me the energy to get the ball rolling,” Dr. Ekwall says.
Dr. Ekwall spent her postdoc period under Professor Gary S. Firestein, a rheumatologist and leading researcher in the area of rheumatoid arthritis, particularly the molecular mechanisms that steer inflammation and degeneration of the joints.
“When I first developed an interest in the aggressive joint capsule cells associated with rheumatoid arthritis, I felt all alone and needed to expand my knowledge while establishing international contacts,” Dr. Ekwall says. “Spending a year and a half in the stimulating setting that UCSD has to offer was an unforgettable experience. International experts got together at seminars and around the coffee machine to discuss their research. Not only that, but I had a mentor who did everything possible to help me, and I found a number of friends and colleagues to collaborate with going forward. Now I have the knowledge I need to pursue research projects in a focused, structured manner while putting together a supportive laboratory organization.”
Dr. Ekwall anticipates that she will be able to assemble the building blocks for her research at Sahlgrenska Academy this coming spring.
Madelene Lindqvist completed her postdoc at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard under Dr. Bruce Walker. The institute, whose primary objective is to facilitate discovery of an HIV vaccine, is collaborating on a number of fronts to carve out a niche as a leader in immunological research.
“The institute is highly respected in the area of HIV research,” Dr. Lindqvist says, “and has partnered with a number of other organizations both domestically and abroad. MIT and Harvard provide researchers with access to the very latest technological advances.” She notes that grants are awarded very differently in the United States. For instance, the institute was first made possible by an extremely generous donation from philanthropist Terry Ragon.
Beyond technical skills and knowledge about new methods and areas of research, Dr. Lindkvist’s postdoc period taught her how to establish contacts and take advantage of opportunities the moment they arise.
“The repatriation grant means a great deal to me,” she says. “I feel as though Sahlgrenska Academy is taking me back with open arms and going out of its way to acknowledge the effort I have devoted to my research. In purely practical terms, I now have the means to set up shop as an independent researcher.”
Linda Lundblad received a PhD from the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology in 2011. Her thesis studied measurement of sensory signals in the cerebral cortex. Her postdoc period focused on brain imaging, primarily with functional MRI (fMRI). She also began working on microneurography, the use of a thin needle to measure signals from either afferent or efferent nerves. Her time at the School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, gave her the chance to find out more about microneurography.
“The method is rather hard to use and involves quite a long learning curve,” Dr. Lundblad says. “Given its extensive experience in the area, Professor Vaughan Macefield’s lab was the perfect place to perform a series of experiments and quickly acquaint myself with the technique.”
Another reason Dr. Lundblad chose Australia is that Professor Macefield and Luke Henderson at the University of Sydney are the only researchers who have succeeded in recording microneurography images during an fMRI.
“Now I will have the opportunity to use the knowledge I acquired in Sydney to start off running and combine techniques that were previously limited to a single place in the world,” Dr. Lundblad says. “I am among the handful of researchers who are able to record microneurography images during fMRI as a means of correlating nerve signal measurements with circulatory changes in the brain.”
Gustaf Rydell received a PhD from the Institute of Biomedicine in 2009. His thesis examined norovirus, which causes winter vomiting disease. Under the supervision of Göran Larson, he identified the carbohydrates that norovirus binds to when attaching to the cell surface. During his postdoc period, he worked at a cell biology laboratory at l’Institut Curie in Paris. His research zeroed in on the ways that pathogens and bacterial toxins enter and are transported in cells.
“I saw connections between a new uptake mechanism that the laboratory had described and my own norovirus research,” Dr. Rydell says.
He learned a great deal about combining cell biology with model membrane systems to study uptake mechanisms. After returning to the Department of Clinical Virology at Sahlgrenska Academy, he has applied the methods to understanding how norovirus and other viruses infect cells.
A psychiatrist specialist, Simona Sacuiu received a PhD in 2009. Her thesis dealt with warning signs of dementia. She spent more than a year at the Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND), University of California in San Francisco, a world-leading brain imaging laboratory. The Swedish Brain Foundation, Swedish Society of Medicine and Göteborg Medical Society co-financed her postdoc appointment. Her research will now explore whether depressive symptoms in the elderly with mild cognitive impairment impact the development and progression of dementia.
