Young medical researchers receive new funding

The Swedish Society for Medical Research is awarding fellowships and grants to 41 young researchers at Swedish institutions of higher education in medicine. Six of these researchers are at the Uppsala University Faculty of Medicine. Four of them will receive full- or part-time fellowships for two years. Two of them will assume three-year research appointments.

‘This year’s fellows and researchers are involved in many exciting and important research fields. At SSMF we focus especially on young researchers because these talented young people have the most difficulty getting funding and are therefore often forced to drop their research. It’s also the case that young researchers often make the most ground-breaking discoveries’, says Göran Magnusson, professor and chair of SSMF.

Fulltime fellowships for postdoctoral research have been awarded to:

• Sonchita Bagchi, Department of Neuroscience, Functional Pharmacology, will pursue research to identify a new glutamate transporter, an important component in the brain’s reward system.
• Caroline Gallant, (picture) Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, will be studying the development and application of molecular tools for HIV research and diagnostics.
• Mikael Hultström, Department of Medical Cell Biology, will be studying the role of the hormone osteopontin in the development of kidney damage related to high blood pressure.
• Jakub Orzechowski Westholm, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, will study gene regulation that governs the development of the nervous system.

Three-year grants, so-called SSMF research positions, are being awarded to:

• Marika Nestor, Department of Radiology, Oncology and Radiation Science, will do research on the development of tumour target-seeking molecules for diagnostics and therapy for head-neck cancer.
• Lina Nordquist, Department of Medical Cell Biology, will study the role of intestinal bacteria in the development of chronic kidney failure.