GRANTS. Four professors at Sahlgrenska Academy will receive project funding totaling SEK 151.4 million from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. A further SEK 36 million will go to the Faculty of Science. “This is proof that our research is of the highest international caliber,” says Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg.
The foundation primarily grants funding for basic research within medicine, technology and science. The funding provides researchers the opportunity to invest in risky and long term projects.
In total, five projects, within medicine and science at the University of Gothenburg, have each been awarded between SEK 29 and 44.7 million, dispersed over a five-year period.
Fredrik Bäckhed, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Institute of Medicine, will receive SEK 43.2 million to increase the knowledge of and connection between intestinal flora and health, with a focus on new treatments for Type 2 diabetes.
Maria Falkenberg, Professor of Biomedical Laboratory Science at the Institute of Biomedicine, will receive SEK 34.5 million to study genetic damage in mitochondria, the cell’s power plant, which is something that gives rise to mitochondrial diseases.
Gunnar C. Hansson, Professor in Medical and Physiological Chemistry at the Institute of Biomedicine, will receive SEK 29 million for research on the protective layer of mucus in our airways and intestines that bacteria are unable to penetrate.
Thomas Nyström, Professor of Microbiology at the Institute of Biomedicine, will receive SEK 44.7 million for research on biological aging, with a focus on how individual cell parts communicate with each other, a designated key factor in this context.
In addition, SEK 36.6 million will go to physics professor, Raimund Feifel, of the Faculty of Science.
In this year’s round of grants from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the University of Gothenburg will receive 5 out of 18 grants and one third of the total amount of SEK 560 million.
TEXT: HENRIK AXLID
PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG AND ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
