Major grant for research in molecular biotechnology
Following multiple selective processes, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research has chosen eighteen young researchers to share SEK 180 million over five years. Johan Elf, associate professor of cell and molecular biology at Uppsala University, has received funding for his research in “new technology for intracellular biophysics.”
Johan Elf, at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, has been given a grant for his research in “new technology for intracellular biophysics.”
“It feels great,” exclaims Johan Elf. “I’ll continue to work to try to understand how biochemical processes function in cells. It’s about technological development and devising computational and simulation models and microscopy. We’re studying various aspects of the physics inside cells and trying to describe how genes are turned on and off, just when this happens, and why.”
The purpose of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) is to support research in science, technology, and medicine in Sweden. The Foundation has developed a program, “Future Research Leaders,” to boost young researchers with the potential and ambition to become Sweden’s future leaders in academic or industrial research.
“SSF works to promote the development of strong research environments of international caliber in Sweden. We are therefore happy to be able to provide research grants for the young researchers that have been selected as this year’s candidates,” says Lars Rask, CEO of SSF.
The eighteen researchers who have been granted funding from “Future Research Leaders” are also being offered opportunities to participate in leadership training.
“It’s fantastic to be given a chance to take part in such a high-quality leadership training program,” says Johan Elf. “It’ll be exciting!”
Johan Elf also received research funding earlier this year. Last spring he was awarded the Göran Gustafsson Prize – Sweden’s largest national prize for research in natural science from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He won the prize in molecular biology “for innovative and pioneering studies of interaction between individual proteins and DNA.”
Anna Malmberg