GRANTS. Five researchers at the University of Gothenburg will receive slightly more than SEK 12 million from the Lundberg Foundation in its latest round of awarded grants. In total, the Lundberg Research Foundation is awarding more than SEK 49 million to 17 projects in Gothenburg, Lund, Stockholm, and Uppsala this year.
Volkan Sayin, an associate senior lecturer at the Institute of Clinical Sciences, is being given SEK 3 million to purchase an instrument that can be used to observe living cells and organoids, which are a kind of 3D-printed microtissues. The instrument is called the Incucte S5X Live Cell Imager.
“With this instrument, we can grow cancer cells and tumor organoids along with immune cells and monitor response to therapy and changes in access to metabolites in real time,” says Sayin. He regards the grant from the Lundberg Foundation as recognition for all the precision medicine research generated by the precision medicine teams.
More precise precision medicine
The instrument will be used to study important cellular processes, such as proliferation (cell division), programmed cell death, migration, and metastasis. In addition, interactions between tumor and immune cells will be studied in high resolution continuously over time.
“As a central part of our research, we use various microscopic methods to study the disease processes that occur in the tissues of orthopedic and rheumatic diseases,” says Mattias Svensson. “By studying tissues that have been affected by a disease, we want to map in detail the interactions among different cell types so we can identify new disease mechanisms. Advanced microscopy requires good equipment to handle the valuable tissue samples we receive from patients with various orthopedic and rheumatic diseases. The histological infrastructure now being created is of utmost importance for our research, because it provides optimal conditions for studying the disease processes that occur locally in a tissue.”
Fifteen million for the Centre for Health Governance
Researchers often find it difficult to obtain resources for investments in equipment, which is why the Lundberg Research Foundation has chosen to focus its support on this. This year, to mark its 40th anniversary, the foundation has allocated an additional SEK 15 million to a research project to analyze the socioeconomic value of medical technology from a number of perspectives. The project is being run by the Centre for Health Governance at the University of Gothenburg.
“Swedish research is successful and continues to be promising. Being able to maintain this high level requires significant funding from private sources, including foundations and other sources of funding. We are pleased to be able to contribute critical support to research in disease areas that severely afflict many people,” Christina Backman, chair of the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg’s Research Foundation, stated in a press release.
In the Lundberg Foundation press release, Olle Larkö, a professor of dermatology and venereology and board member of IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg’s Research Foundation, noted that today’s research is tomorrow’s healthcare. “We see a very good return on the research being done. Patients receive better and sometimes even cheaper treatments. Opportunities for treating cancer, for example, have expanded enormously in recent decades, particularly for childhood cancers.”
Recipients of grants from the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg’s Research Foundation
Volkan Sayin
Equipment for large-scale characterization of new, personalized precision medicines to combat cancer
SEK 3,000,000, University of Gothenburg
George Birchenough
In vivo imaging to identify protective factors against colorectal cancer
SEK 2,300,000, University of Gothenburg
Eva Angenete
Tailored treatment to improve outcomes in patients with rectal cancer
SEK 1,100,000, University of Gothenburg
Mattias Svensson
Advanced infrastructure for histopathological assessment of orthopedic and rheumatic diseases
SEK 3,400,000, University of Gothenburg
Cristina Maglio
Metabolic changes in early rheumatoid arthritis–from pathogenesis to treatment response
SEK 2,300,000, University of Gothenburg
The IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg’s Research Foundation, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, was founded by IngaBritt Lundberg in 1982 in memory of her husband, merchant Arne Lundberg, who was born in Gothenburg in 1910. The purpose of the foundation is to promote medical scientific research, mainly in the fields of cancer, kidney diseases, and orthopedics, and to give priority to the purchase of apparatuses, aids, and equipment. From 1983 to 2022, 591 grants have been awarded for a total of SEK 1.014 billion, of which SEK 49 million were awarded in 2022. Research in the Gothenburg region has priority. The foundation is based in Gothenburg.
