Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse
Mon, May 29, 2023 15:11 CET
With the aim to bridge the funding gap between academic research and innovation and commercialization in life science, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and SciLifeLab are launching a new Proof of Concept Grant in Life Science. This grant gives researchers the opportunity to develop their early-stage discoveries towards validated methods, products or processes. The ambition of the grant program is to facilitate innovation and value for society that arises from excellent academic research. “Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation is a globally important funder of basic research, and we would like to see more of the research that we finance develop into innovations. That’s why we support this initiative”, says Göran Sandberg, Executive Director, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The scope of the grant encompasses the broad spectrum of areas within life science, including but not limited to therapeutics, medical technology, diagnostics, research tools, e-health, and industrial biotechnology. It also welcomes innovations in environmental science, agriculture, bioenergy, and sustainability. “The new support provided by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to this initiative is very welcome and much-needed for life science in Sweden. We also hope that SciLifeLab infrastructure and data capabilities can help in the challenge to translate research discoveries. I firmly believe that it will profoundly impact the landscape for innovative researchers, inspiring them to seize the opportunity to leverage their discoveries”, says Olli Kallioniemi, Director SciLifeLab. The role of SciLifeLab is to set up a panel of experts to evaluate the scientific base and potential of these grants, while Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation will coach the researchers through their innovation vehicle Wallenberg Launchpad (WALP) and make final decisions on the individual grants. To secure a successful application, researchers must focus on presenting a comprehensive plan to verify the usability and suitability of their novel methods, products, or processes derived from research. “I encourage eligible life science researchers with ideas or disruptive innovations with commercial potential to seize this opportunity and apply. Each selected project will receive funding in the range of 1 to 4 million SEK, allowing for a project period of up to two years, says Elin Almstedt, WALP Life Science Lead, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Contact

Proof of Concept Grant Program Aims to Ignite Life Science Innovation

Akiram Therapeutics raises 68 million SEK
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The investment company Linc AB participated in the share issue with SEK 20 million. “We would like to thank Sciety and all those who have participated in this successful issue for the great confidence in Akiram and our drug candidate. We now have the means to continue our work at full speed and take the next important steps on our exciting journey. We are very eager to continue the development of our drug candidate and to initiate phase I clinical studies,” says Marika Nestor, CEO of Akiram. “We are delighted to see the great interest and trust in our work and to have a group of investors helping us to deliver hope to patients suffering from incurable cancer.”
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The proceeds from the financing will be used for GMP production of the drug candidate and for initiating a phase I clinical study. Targeted radioimmunotherapy for anaplastic thyroid cancer
Akiram Therapeutics has developed a new type of targeted radioimmunotherapy for anaplastic thyroid cancer. The drug candidate consists of Akiram’s antibody, the result of many years of research, in combination with the radioactive compound, Lutetium 177. Akiram has thus far run the project within academia with support from, among others, SciLifeLab, VINNOVA, and the Swedish Cancer Society. Preclinical data shows, among other things, that the drug candidate has a significant effect on human thyroid tumours in animals without signs of side effects or damage to the surrounding tissue. “Targeted radiation therapy is a rapidly growing field expected to become the next breakthrough in cancer treatment. The reasons for our decision to invest are, among others, the founding team’s long experience in the field, both from academia and industry, as well as their solid preclinical data. We now look forward to participating in the company’s continued journey,” says Andreas Lindblom, CEO of Sciety. “We are very impressed with the company’s preclinical work, including the outstanding study results. In addition, we have high confidence in the management’s ability to successfully run both the production development work and the clinical phase 1 trial. We look forward to being part of the company’s future development,” says Karl Tobieson, CEO of Linc. An ideal case for the SciLifeLab DDD model
With the goal to enable personalized medicine, the idea was to evaluate the use of tailored molecular radiotherapy as treatment for advanced thyroid cancer, for which there is currently no effective treatment available. Since the exit, Marika Nestor and colleagues from Uppsala University have started a company – Akiram Therapeutics – to further develop the candidate drug for clinical use. The drug is a novel antibody-based radiopharmaceutical, which has potential to be broadly used in several other cancer indications. ”Marika’s project represented an ideal case for the SciLifeLab DDD model. In short, that means that we get innovative ideas from academic researchers around Sweden and use our technical infrastructure and drug discovery knowledge to develop prototype drugs, while the academic research group continues to develop the biological understanding,” says Per Arvidsson, Director Drug Discovery & Development Platform, SciLifeLab. “For us, the collaborative environment where we alternated work in the lab with the preclinical models that SciLifeLab have, were very successful. Without the support from SciLifeLab for pre-clinical proof of concept, and Testa Center, where we could optimize the production of the antibody, we would not have started the company. Now, with the financing, our mission to contribute to meet the therapeutic need of a group of cancer patients is about to be realized,” finishes Marika Nestor. Photo: iStock

Akiram Therapeutics raises 68 million SEK

Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet are creating Sweden’s first innovation environment for the development of precision medicine technologies. The decision to establish a join innovation environment for healthcare, research and precision medicine technologies in Solna and Huddinge is a vital step in growing the field of precision medicine.

“Precision medicine is a priority for both research and healthcare,” says Ole Petter Ottersen, president of Karolinska Institutet. “Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have been working closely for years to develop the field, and this establishment is another step forward in this endeavour. In the long run, it will provide the right treatment to the right patient, help to prevent and cure more diseases and generate gains for society.”

Among the other actors involved in the collaboration are SciLifeLab, Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS), Stockholm Centre for Health Data, MedTechLabs and Data Science Node (DDLS).

Precision medicine is already an important aspect of care in the fields of cancer, rare diagnoses and neurological disorders such as epilepsy and MS, while inroads are also being made in infection diseases and chronic diseases, such as asthma, connective tissue diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity.

One vital function of the new innovation environment is to create a high gene-sequencing capacity with SciLifeLab in order to increase the number of analyses made and shorten the time to results. Physical proximity is also conducive to crossover collaboration and skills exchange, while the new way of working will require the development of novel services and functions for the healthcare of tomorrow.

This article was first published on 21 January by Karolinska Institutet.

Precision medicine technologies developed by KI and Karolinska University Hospital

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the Centre for Imaging Research (CIR), SciLifeLab, and RISE have together received a grant of over SEK 100 million from the European Commission's Digital Europe programme. The project, called TEF-Health, will, among other things, promote the rapid introduction of new artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics solutions in healthcare.

”The European Commission wants to increase the efficiency, resilience and sustainability of the EU's healthcare systems and thereby reduce inequalities in healthcare within the EU. AI and robotics are considered critical areas that need to be developed to achieve this goal,” says Daniel Lundqvist, Director at CIR, and researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, who is leading the Swedish node of the TEF-Health consortium.

In addition to Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Slovakia are part of the newly formed EU consortium, which has a total budget of 60 million euro (equivalent to about SEK 650 million). The consortium is led by Petra Ritter of the German Charité Universitaetsmedizin. In addition to Daniel Lundqvist, the management team for the Swedish node includes Päivi Östling from Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab, Sandra Falck from SciLifeLab and Alireza Salehi from RISE.

The idea is for TEF-Health to support small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups that want to launch innovations in AI and robotics for healthcare. This could include providing state-of-the-art facilities for testing and validation, making data available, offering clinical expertise, or helping with ethics approval and certification. The Swedish node has the expertise and partners to help European companies enter the Swedish healthcare market quickly.

”For Sweden, TEF Health represents a great opportunity to build unique and long-term value for the benefit of precision health and precision medicine and creates synergies with other European initiatives in which our organisations are involved. SciLifeLab and CIR will also be able to offer new, standardised, uniquely comprehensive services in multimodal in vivo and ex vivo imaging and molecular profiling to academia, clinicians, and industry alike,” says Päivi Östling, researcher at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, and SciLifeLab.

This article was first published on 10 January by Karolinska Institutet.

Karolinska: Major EU funding for development of AI in healthcare

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InfraLife (Infra Access for Life Science Sweden ) is a Swedish initiative to maximize the benefits of Sweden’s large scale research infrastructures SciLifeLab, MAX IV and ESS. Please accept preferences cookies to watch this video. Funded by Swedish Research Council, InfraLife also partners with industrial organizations SwedenBIO & LIF and collaborates with SWElife, MedTech4Health and Swedish MedTech. The intent of the project is to highlight Sweden as a leading nation in the life sciences sector, and support its businesses. The initiative’s mission is to improve knowledge and availability of research infrastructure, making it accessible to life science researchers in academia, industry and healthcare. Sweden has highlighted research and infrastructure as priority areas in the country’s life science strategy. With InfraLife, the aim is to increase the use of Swedish research infrastructures, broaden the user base to represent a range of stakeholders and stimulate cross-sectoral collaboration, and in so doing, to address some of today’s greatest challenges. These challenges require a collaborative and cross-disciplinary approach, and InfraLife aims to serve as a hub to connect stakeholders and make tools accessible to be utilized by researchers. Content continues below
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Watch: InfraLife supports Sweden’s life sciences industry

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