Huge grants from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

In recent years Leif Andersson, professor of functional genomics, has presented discovery after discovery about the genetic background to the properties of various domesticated animals. Several of the findings pave the way for interesting medical applications. Now he has been awarded a SEK 31 million grant by the Wallenberg Foundation to find out more about the function of these genes.

‘This is fantastic! We have funding for genetic screening, but it’s costly to go on to find out about the function of these genes and the mechanism behind the connections. Now we’ll be able to do so’, he says.

The second project involves materials science and magnetic materials. In such materials the atoms are lined up in an orderly way and in the same direction, but if their equilibrium is disturbed, very interesting things happen. A research team at Ångström Laboratory, headed by Professor Olle Eriksson, is receiving more than SEK 37 million over a five-year period. They have been working at the theoretical level for a few years. Now they will be able to set up an experimental environment where they hope to be able to verify their theories.

‘The theory predicts several interesting phenomena, especially when we study magnets at the nano level, and with the experiments we will now be able to perform it can be said that we’ll be able to take steps towards technological applications of our knowledge’, says Olle Eriksson.

Astronomers at Uppsala University will receive more than SEK 23 million in grants to search and analyse atmospheres surrounding earth-like planets in other solar systems. Ultimately these researchers hope to be able to answer the question of whether there are traces of life on these planets.

The first observations of huge Jupiter-like exoplanets were made using the instrument CRIRES at one of the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) 8-meter telescopes in Chile. The observations indicate that spectroscopic studies of the atmosphere surrounding an earth-like exoplanets are possible – but not with existing instruments.

Uppsala researchers Nikolai Piskunov and Eric Stempels will now be directing an international collaborative project, CRIRES+, which is retooling the existing instrument. The reconstruction is expected to take 2.5 year, and, with its new detectors, the new instrument will be more sensitive and more stable.

Besides these three projects, a further three Uppsala scientists are being awarded parts of major project grants from the Foundation but with lead applicants from other universities. Carl-Henrik Heldin, professor of molecular microbiology, with a project on biomarkers for various forms of cancer (with Umeå University), Siv Andersson, professor of molecular evolution (with Karolinska Institutet, KI), and Per Artursson, professor of drug formulation (with KI).

Altogether this represents a robust reinforcement of strong profile areas at Uppsala University: life science and cancer research at SciLifeLab, materials research, and space research.