Faculty of Pharmacy confers six new doctors

On Friday 23 May, the doors to Uppsala University's Grand Auditorium and the solemn Spring Conferment Ceremony will open, an academic tradition celebrating its 425th anniversary. Our Faculty of Pharmacy will confer six new doctoral graduates that will receive their hat and diploma from degree conferrer Andrew Hooker, Professor of Pharmacometrics.

Leticia Arrington defended her thesis Pharmacometric Evaluation of Item Response Modeling to Inform Clinical Drug Development in May 2025. Leticia carried out her PhD project at the Department of Pharmacy and at the company Amgen where Leticia continues her work as a Senior Principal Scientist in Clinical Pharmacology, Modeling & Simulation.

Frida Bällgren defended her thesis Translational Aspects of Brain-Specific Drug Delivery by Targeting Active Uptake at Brain Barriers in December 2024. Frida carried out her work at the Department of Pharmacy, introducing new findings about a protein with the potential to play an important part in treatment of brain diseases. Frida currently works as a researcher at the ADMEoT Facility (UDOPP), Drug Discovery and Development Platform based at Uppsala University.

Rosita Kneiszl defended her thesis Mechanistic Studies of Membrane Permeation of Peptides in April 2025. In her PhD project, carried out at the Department of Pharmacy and within the framework of international research center SweDeliver, Rosita presents findings that show that permeability enhancers provide a promising strategy for oral delivery of peptide drugs.

Fanny Lundmark defended her thesis Design, Synthesis, and Preclinical Evaluation of Peptide-based Radioligands Targeting PSMA and GRPR in Prostate Cancer at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in September 2024. In her work, Fanny – via modified molecules and modern imaging technology – laid the foundation for an important step towards earlier and safer diagnoses of prostate cancer. Fanny currently works as a Product developer at Apotek Produktion & Laboratorier AB.

Evgeniya Mickols defended her thesis Advanced In Vitro Systems for Studies of Drug Disposition in the Human Liver in March 2025. Conducting her PhD work at the Department of Pharmacy, Evgeniya contributed to an improved understanding and optimization of 3D primary human hepatocyte spheroid cultures, and deep integration of an in vitro model into drug development pipelines. Today, Evgeniya continues her work at Uppsala University's Department of Pharmacy.

Maria Swartling defended her thesis Model-informed antibiotic dose individualization in clinical practice in January 2025. A work in which she introduces new findings that enable safer and more effective use of antibiotics and a strategy for clinical implementation. Maria currently works as a Lecturer at Uppsala University and is coordinator of the Master's program in clinical pharmacy.

At the Spring Conferment Ceremony, our Faculty of Pharmacy also has the privilege to confer eleven new jubilee doctors: Alf Claesson, Anders Cronlund, Mats Ehrnebo, Staffan Eksborg, Kerstin Gröningsson, Karl-Henrik Hasselgren, Roland Jeppsson, Åke Lindquist, Karl Gunnar Regardh, Pål Stenberg and Douglas Westerlund.

See video about the Conferment Ceremony at Uppsala University

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt a o