Research projects 2019

Research projects with high scientific potential

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has awarded a total of SEK 640 million to 20 research projects in the fields of medicine, the natural sciences and technology that are considered to offer potential for future scientific breakthroughs.

New therapies for MS and aggressive brain tumors, development of solar cells and alternative fuels, the way plants communicate, targeted drugs, new insights into the universe and dark matter, and development of a vaccine against rheumatoid arthritis are some of the topics covered.

Medicine

Project: ”An ultra-fast system for mechanical pain signaling”

Grant: SEK 34 500 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Håkan Olausson, Linköping University

Understanding pain

Project: ”Changing the view on autoimmune disease based on positional cloning of the Ncf1 gene”

Grant: SEK 36 500 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Rikard Holmdahl, Karolinska Institutet

Genetic discovery paves the way for vaccines against autoimmune diseases

Project: ”Breaking barriers to efficient immunotherapy of brain tumours”

Grant: SEK 31 500 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Anna Dimberg, Uppsala University

A new approach offers potential for treating brain tumors

Project: ”Epigenomic states underlying aggressive inflammation and brain tissue loss in Multiple Sclerosis”

Grant: SEK 28 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Maja Jagodic, Karolinska Institutet

Developing molecular tools to slow MS

Project: ”Insights on the role of oligodendroglia in the origin and progression of multiple sclerosis”

Grant: SEK 34 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Gonçalo Castelo Branco, Karolinska Institutet

New insights into multiple sclerosis

Project: ”Mitochondrial Methyltransferases - From discovery to disease”

Grant: SEK 36 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Dr Anna Wredenberg, Karolinska Institutet

Taking control over the powerhouses of the cell

Natural sciences

Project: ”Photofunctional Iron Complexes”

Grant: SEK 35 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Kenneth Wärnmark, Lund University

Green solar energy from modified iron molecules

Project: ”The obligate respiratory supercomplex - augmented biological energy conversion”

Grant: SEK 38 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Martin Högbom, Stockholm University

Cell powerhouses offer potential for new drugs

Project: ”Function of small RNAs as intra and inter-organismal communication signal”

Grant: SEK 28 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Claudia Köhler, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

How the sex cells of plants talk to each other

Project: ”Unexplored Approaches to Organic Photoredox Catalysis”

Grant: SEK 35 000 000 kronor over five years 
Principal investigator: Professor Sascha Ott, Uppsala University

Resource efficient chemistry

Project: ”Access to potent medical drugs through polymorph-specific crystallization enabled by ionic liquids”

Grant: SEK 33 000 000 kronor over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Anja-Verena Mudring, Stockholm University

Better drugs with ionic liquids

Project: ”Molecular evolution and design of G protein-coupled receptors with tailored ligand specificity”

Grant: SEK 28 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Jens Carlsson, Uppsala University

Signal pathways to better therapeutics

Technology/physics/mathematics:

Project: ”Dynamic Quantum Matter”

Grant: SEK 28 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Alexander Balatsky, Stockholm University

Laying the foundations for the next quantum revolution

Project: ”Active Matter Goes Smart”

Grant: SEK 37 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Giovanni Volpe, University of Gothenburg

Creating smart particles modeled on nature

Project: ”Light Dark Matter”

Grant: SEK 26 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Torsten Åkesson, Lund University

Revealing the dark secret of the universe

Project: ”Multidisciplinary Design of Lead-Free Double Perovskite Alloys for Future Optoelectronics”

Grant: SEK 34 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Associate Professor Feng Gao, Linköping University

New alloys for better solar cells and beyond

Project: ”Towards CO2 neutral energy conversion using advanced laser diagnostics and modelling – COCALD”

Grant: SEK 34 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Marcus Aldén, Lund University

Replacing fossil fuels with metals

Project: ”Gravity Meets Light”

Grant: SEK 33 500 000 over five years 
Principal investigator: Professor Stephan Rosswog, Stockholm University

Gold born in stellar collisions

Project: ”Designed for UPDATE: Next-Generation Embedded Systems”

Grant: SEK 25 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Yi Wang, Uppsala University

Bringing new life to embedded computer systems

Project: ”Plasmon-exciton coupling at the attosecond-subnanometer scale: Tailoring strong light-matter interactions at room temperature”

Grant: SEK 25 000 000 over five years
Principal investigator: Professor Eva Olsson, Chalmers University of Technology

Strong nanoscale coupling of light and matter

Earlier years