Swedish Research Council grants SEK 14.9 million to research at the Faculty of Pharmacy

This week, the Swedish Research Council announced the outcome of the Medicine and Health & Natural and engineering sciences calls 2025. Among no less than 2,467 applicants, four grants totaling SEK 14.85 million are awarded to researchers at the Faculty of Pharmacy.

“It is inspiring for all of us to see our colleagues succeed in the very tough competition that surrounds the Swedish Research Council grants. These achievements also confirm that applications from our faculty are of the highest quality with a research focus along the absolute front line, which in turn opens up for continued good results in the major calls,” states Mathias Hallberg, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Christel Bergström, Professor of Molecular Pharmaceutics, receives 5.4 million SEK for project A virtual pediatric intestine for prediction of drug absorption after oral administration to children. The grant, which is awarded throughout 2026-2029, enables the team to continue the development of a model of relevance for both oral drug delivery and 3R – Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of animal experiments.

“By applying our virtual intestinal environment, we can, completely without animal testing, calculate how different substance combinations and doses will affect release and absorption in the intestine. This is an incredibly inspiring journey that would not be possible anywhere but here in Uppsala, whose Life Science environments are of the highest international class for pharmaceutical research,” states Professor Bergström.

Erik Jansson, Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, is granted 4.2 million SEK for the project Capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry for data-driven identification and characterization of dynamics of cellular protein complexes. The grant, which will be received 2026-2029, follows just weeks after Erik Jansson, together with Lindon Moodie, Associate Professor at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, received a SEK million funding from the Research Council to plan a cluster of excellence based at Uppsala University’s Biomedical Center.

Sara Mangsbo, Professor of Protein and Antibody Drugs, receives 3.0 million kronor for the project ADAC-based antibody formulation, a Trojan horse for the delivery of oligonucleotide-based therapy. Mangsbo's technology, with potential to tailor treatments for a range of tumor diseases, has previously been highlighted on IVA’s 100 list of Sweden’s Most Promising Innovative Projects.

“I am so very happy to receive the Swedish Research Council's positive decision that enables our studies of how to control the delivery of oligonucleotide-based drugs to various organs and cells of the human body – a project we are initiating in collaboration with, among others, the universities of Southampton and Ghent, RISE and several researchers at our own Faculty of Pharmacy,” states Professor Mangsbo.

Alexandra Teleki, Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, who in October received 4 million kronor from the Erling-Persson Foundation, is awarded 2.25 million kronor by the Swedish Research Council for her project Microfluidic device for simulating dynamic biotransformations of oral delivered nanodrugs.

We congratulate Christel Bergström, Erik Jansson, Sara Mangsbo and Alexandra Teleki. Interesting research and results will follow.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt a o