Donation to a new foundation focused on medical innovation
The signing. An important donation for medical research and innovation, according to Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt. Ulf Landegren sits to the right in the photo. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Uppsala University.
Through a donation from the family, a new foundation has been formed called Familjen Landegrens stiftelse för medicinsk forskning (Landegren Family Foundation for Medical Research). The purpose of this foundation is to support Uppsala University’s medical research and medical innovation.
“This is an important and most welcome donation that focuses on supporting innovation in medical research, something that Ulf Landegren himself has been part of in his own research achievements. With this focus on the innovation environment, more discoveries will be able to benefit society,” says Anders Hagfeldt, Vice-Chancellor at Uppsala University.
Ulf Landegren is a professor and head of research at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University. The focus for the foundation that his family has established is based on his own experience in academia. The purpose of the foundation is primarily to support research in molecular medicine that has the potential to lead to innovations, regardless of who does it but with priority given to research at Uppsala University.
“Establishing a foundation is something I’ve had in mind for a long time. It was my late friend and mentor, Professor Ulf Petterson, who sparked the idea in me. I hope that the foundation will serve the continued development of the innovative research environment at Uppsala University, where talented young researchers can be given the conditions to succeed,” says Ulf Landegren.
Built a stimulating innovation environment
As a doctoral student, Ulf Landegren had no thought that his research might find industrial applications. Science was his entire focus. But during a postdoc fellowship in the USA, an invention of his was patented, and went rapidly to industrial development in a spinoff company from the lab. Upon returning to Uppsala, he discovered that there was a tradition of this kind of collaboration between the University’s biochemistry department and the company Pharmacia Biotech, something he had not been aware of during his doctoral studies.
Ulf Landegren therefore invested in building a stimulating innovation environment in the research lab with his students. Their work has resulted in a number of basic techniques for molecular analyses. When they identified potential applications for these techniques, Ulf and his students went on to start a number of companies with industrialists, including the successful biotechnology company Olink Proteomics.
“Getting innovations to market requires multiple components, such as advanced knowledge in technology and ideas, a feeling for which problems are important to try to solve, and industrial skills and know-how, and of course access to academic research grants and industrial funding,” says Ulf Landegren.
“In academia, seeking industrial applications has previously been seen as a bit suspect. Today however, there is an increasing awareness of the value of scientific progress finding applications in society at large. It’s gratifying that this insight now permeates many of the study programmes at Uppsala University,” he concludes.
Anneli Waara