Ola Söderberg: “We must encourage young researchers to raise the bar”

August 2025 marks a big step for the Söderberg Laboratory and a giant leap for the life sciences. In the prestigious journal Nature Communications, the team at Uppsala University publishes Sloppymerase: an artificially produced enzyme that enables visualisation of both where and how often single-strand breaks in DNA occur in cells. The publication represents a breakthrough, opening new scientific doors for research and future treatment of virtually every disease where incorrect gene expression plays a crucial role.

“I like to define myself as a problem solver. Most research is driven by hypotheses, but progress requires access to the right methods. This includes effective techniques for cell analysis, a cornerstone of modern biomedical research and healthcare. That is why we have developed methods that meet concrete needs for almost 25 years. It is often a challenge to convince financiers of the benefits that await, but the necessity of relevant methods is reflected not least when the Nobel Prizes are announced,” says Ola Söderberg, Professor of Pharmaceutical Cell Biology.

Sloppymerase arrives at a time when the World Health Organization, WHO, estimates that one in five people will receive a cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. Tumor diseases arise as a result of changes in cell DNA, and now this error-prone enzyme raises hope for, in the long term, enabling cancer treatment by turning off the genes that tumors depend on. In 2023, the work was awarded the Attractive Innovation Project Prize. Today, the biotechnology company Genovis is developing the technology for industrial use.

“Our publication in Nature Communications is the result of seven years of intensive research. From the start, we realized the scope of what we were getting ourselves into. But it is only when we dare to challenge our abilities and invest the time required that we can produce truly solid results that will make it through the eye of a needle to high-impact journals,” says Ola Söderberg – who, with ten articles in Nature journals, knows what the process requires.

Professor Söderberg lives as he teaches outside the lab as well: When he in 2016 decided to swim 100-meter freestyle in less than 56 seconds, countless sessions in the pool awaited. When ready, he reached the finish line in 55.08 seconds. An accomplishment that set both a new Swedish record and a world’s best time of the year in the 50+ age group. We leave it to Chat GPT to define how the same driving force manifests itself in a scientific CV: “A single article in a Nature journal is often considered career-defining, making ten publications an outstanding achievement that reflects a solid history of groundbreaking work.”

“Having your article accepted in a high-impact journal adds a lot of value, starting already at the review phase, when the field’s leading experts provide input on your material, offering important guidance to sharpen the final version. Once your results are published, they reach both further and more relevant target groups. Therefore, we should integrate these ambitions into our education and form a culture that encourages young researchers to, from the start, set the bar at levels they can be proud of when they reach them.”

So what defines such scientific heights? Ola does not hesitate: originality and innovation. Never follow the beaten path or settle for repeating what others have already shown. He is supported by Uppsala University's goal of research excellence, measured by the proportion of publications among the 10 percent most frequently cited. An established benchmark is Scopus, the world's largest reference database for peer-reviewed literature, assigning each researcher an H-index based on publications and citations – where 40 or higher characterizes “outstanding scientists who are likely to be found only at the top universities,” and here we find Ola Söderberg with an H-index of 43 and a remarkably high 77 citations per published article.

“In my world, the best innovations continue to inspire new progress long after they hit the market. Right now we are preparing a publication that contains significant improvements to a technique to map protein interactions that we first introduced in Nature Methods in 2006. For me, this confirms that every solid work opens up a new world of possibilities to explore. And before the day comes when I take off my lab coat for good, I hope that we have developed Sloppymerase as far as we can. That would be something to tell the grandchildren.”

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt