Anders Karlén is Pharmacist of the Year 2024
The Faculty of Pharmacy congratulates Anders Karlén, Professor of Computer-aided drug design, on receiving the Pharmacist of the Year 2024 Award by the Swedish Pharmacists Association. "I am very honored by the award and of having the privilege to work with a very committed team," says Anders Karlén.
The Swedish Pharmacists Association presents the Pharmacist of the Year 2024 award to Anders Karlén, Professor at Uppsala University's Department of Medicinal Chemistry. Anders Karlén receives the award for his successful work to develop a new and promising antibiotic class, which have shown great promise in the fight against resistant bacteria..
“I am very honored by the award and of having the privilege to work with a very committed team”. Hopefully, the award can also contribute to put the spotlight on the need for long-term investments to secure our capacity to develop new antibiotics, something that we also discuss in a recently published article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery,” says Anders Karlén, who is also the coordinator of the international efforts COMBINE and ENABLE-2.
Anders Karlén is Pharmacist of the Year 2024
In the work earning him the Pharmacist of the Year award, Anders Karlén and his colleagues have identified a molecule that is highly active against the protein LpxH, which many Gram-negative bacteria use to synthesize their outermost layer of protection. These include the multi-resistant bacteria Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia, highlighted by the World Health Organization as being the most critical to develop novel treatments for.
“Our progress is the result of a long-term collaboration in which Diarmaid Hughes, Douglas Huseby, Edouard Zamaratski, T. Alwyn Jones, Sherry Mowbray and many other colleagues have participated. The fact that our compound can cure bloodstream infections in mice models indicates great potential and gives us every reason to look positively at the future for our project. But we are also aware of the amount of work and the various challenges that remain before we can move towards clinical studies. Therefore, it is very important to continue to fill the pipeline with new antibacterial drug candidates, making initiatives like ENABLE-2 so incredibly important,” says Anders Karlén.
Anders Karlén will accept the Pharmacist of the Year 2024 award at a ceremony in Stockholm Tuesday 8 October. On the same occasion, Maryam Mahmood will accept the Pharmacy Student of the Year 2024 award.
Facts
- Since 1983, the Swedish Pharmacists Association has annually presented the Pharmacist of the Year award to "a pharmacist active in Sweden who, through his/her efforts in practical pharmacy, has contributed to strengthen, develop or consolidate the role of pharmacy in society".The award jury states that "this breakthrough strengthens Sweden's position in pharmaceutical research and development, and underlines the important role that pharmacists play in improving public health".
- Anders Karlén receives the award for his work to develop a new and promising type of antibiotic.
Contact
Anders Karlén, Professor
Department of Medicinal Chemistry
Anders.Karlen@ilk.uu.se
text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt