Lars Forsberg receives ERC Starting Grant

This very prestigious research grant is awarded prominent young researchers in tough international competition and is for approximately €1.5 million during five years.

“It feels fantastic and very inspiring to receive an ERC Starting Grant. A grant like this is fundamental for me and my research group since we now have the resources to perform this important research project”, says Lars Forsberg.

Lars Forsberg’s research focuses on during lifetime acquired genetic changes (i.e. post-zygotic mutations) and their importance for health and disease. The most common type of such mutations is loss of the male sex chromosome Y in blood cells in elderly men (called LOY, for Loss of Y). In the funded project the importance and consequences of LOY will be studied in detail. Lars Forsberg’s previous research has shown that elderly men with LOY in a portion of their blood cells survive on average only half as long after being tested as men without LOY. They also have an increased risk of developing non-hematological cancers.

Out of the 291 researchers who have been granted an ERC starting grants 10 are from Sweden. In total 2920 applications were submitted to ERC and 940 of these were in the Life Sciences domain.