Mats Danielsson, program leader at MedTechLabs and professor of Medical Imaging Physics at KTH, has received SEK 925 000 for his research in medical imaging technology that can enable earlier diagnosis of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The prize is awarded by the Hans Wigzell Research Foundation.

Hans Wigzell is Professor of Immunology at Karolinska Institutet, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), and a former President of Karolinska Institutet. Mats Danielsson receives the prize from the Research Foundation for his research in medical imaging technology that can enable earlier diagnosis of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

For more information, read the press release from the Hans Wigzell Research Foundation here (in Swedish).

Three- and four-year funding for cancer projects. We congratulate MedTechLab's researcher Fredrik Strand who has recently been awarded research funding from both the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Cancer Foundation. 

In October, Fredrik Strand was awarded SEK 6,000,000 in funding from the Swedish Research Council (spread over four years) for the project “Developing machine learning models for MRI-based precision medicine for breast cancer”. And in November, he was awarded a further SEK 2 400 000 (three years) from the Swedish Cancer Foundation.

2022 is not over and already several researchers at the centre's project "Optical 3D microscopy for more effective treatment of kidney diseases" have enjoyed good success.
The prize recognizes one or more researchers/research students who have distinguished themselves through outstanding utilization of research results that have led to innovation.

Staffan Holmin at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, is awarded the Prize for Innovation and Utilization, 2022. Staffan Holmin is also a research leader at MedTechLabs in the programme Spectral CT-imaging and Endovascular Techniques.  

Read more about the priz and the prize committee’s motivation here. 

The project is a part of a broad, international multicenter study. Fredrik Strand, breast radiologist and researcher at Medtechlabs, is awarded SEK 4 million from Horizon Europe as one of several participants in the RadioVal project, who received a total grant of SEK 60 million.

RadioVal is the first broad multicenter study of radiomics-driven clinical evaluation of neoadjuvant therapy response to breast cancer. The project is based on tools and repositories of images created within five EU-funded projects from the AI ​​for Health Imaging network (AI4HI). To evaluate usability and transferability, validation will take place in eight different centres in Sweden, Austria, Spain, Poland, Croatia, Argentina, Egypt and Turkey.

The Radiology part of the program Breast Cancer Imaging program powered by AI Diagnostics, with Research leaders Kevin Smith, KTH and Fredrik Strand, Karolinska Institutet have been granted funding by the WASP and DDLS Joint call for research projects with SEK 3 875 000 for two years.

The project Transforming Breast Cancer (TransformBC) will recruit two postdocs starting April 1 2022. The first position with a focus on the development of new AI algorithms (KTH from WASP) and the second with a focus on clinical validation of the AI ​​algorithms (KI from DDLS). 

The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) is a major national initiative for strategically motivated basic research, education and faculty recruitment. It is by far the largest individual research program in Sweden.

The SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) is an initiative to handle that the amount and complexity of data is growing exponentially, and that more scientific discoveries are enabled when data is openly available to researchers across the world.

MedTechLabs has had an intense but rewarding year and here we point out some of the highlights.

Centre Highlights 2021 


1. The new CT-lab opened. On Friday 29 October, we inaugurated our new CT laboratory at BioClinicum, Karolinska University Hospital in Solna. Read more here
 
2. MedTechLabs Fellows Jeroen Goos and Mats Persson were awarded with Swedish Research Council´s starting Grant. Each 4-year Grant amounts to 4 million SEK. Read more here and here
 
3. MedTechLabs Research leaders, Johan Hartman and Mattias Rantalainen, were granted 20 million SEK from Vinnova, for clinical implementation of new diagnostic solutions based on AI for breast cancer pathology. Read more here
 
4. MedTechLabs Research leaders Hans Blom and Sigrid Lundberg, newly affiliated to MedTechLabs with the project “Optical 3D microscopy for more effective diagnosis of kidney diseases”, achieved 1,56 million SEK from the Torsten Söderberg Foundation. Read more here
 
5. Analysis of the strengths of patents generated by the research leaders in the Spectral CT-imaging and Endovascular Techniques within MedTechLabs, showed to be on par with world class environments at Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University. Read more here

6. MedTechLabs Research leaders Peder Olofsson and Henrik Hult achieved a donation by the foundation Stockholm Pandemic Resilience to the project “Enhanced diagnose of patients with long COVID” within the Bioelectronic Medicine program. Read more here

1,56 million swedish crowns in funding for the project "Optical 3D microscopy for more effective diagnosis of kidney diseases".

It is with great joy we can announce that the Torsten Söderberg Foundation has granted 1,56 million swedish crowns in funding for the project “Optical 3D microscopy for more effective diagnosis of kidney diseases” at MedTechLabs. The project is lead by Sigrid Lundberg, MD, Renal Researcher/ nephrologist, KI / KS Danderyd and Hans Blom, Associate Professor, KTH / Scilifelab. Read more about the project here

On Friday 29 October, we inaugurated our new CT laboratory at BioClinicum, adjacent to Karolinska University Hospital in Solna. In addition to a tour of the laboratory and an ensuing reception, several speeches were given on the significance of the new CT laboratory. The following is an excerpt from the speech given by the chief executive officer of Karolinska University Hospital, Björn Zoëga.

“The CT technology that became available during the 1970s opened up a whole new world for us doctors. This, the next stage in development, offers unbounded possibilities. Here at Karolinska University Hospital, in various ways we treat 1.3 million patients every year. Our aim is that the hospital should constantly progress and provide better care and treatment and I believe that we have demonstrated that we can do so. The fact that we are now the first in the world with this new technology also affirms both that Karolinska Institutet is ranked among the best environments for clinical research in the world, and that Karolinska University Hospital is advancing as one of the best hospitals in the world.

Our machinery and its relationship to how we work as Europe’s smartest hospital means that we must constantly move forwards. To do so together with others is a success factor, and the CT laboratory is an excellent example of this. The strength in working together has been made particularly apparent during the pandemic. It means a great deal to the hospital and the hospital’s patients that clinical studies are now underway to ensure that the next generation of computed tomography benefits patients and the health service.”

Awarded with Swedish Research Counicil's starting Grant within Natural and Engineering Sciences. MedTechLabs fellow, Mats Persson is awarded as a junior researcher to establish himself as independent researcher in Sweden. The 4-year grant amounts to SEK 4 000 000.

The grant is directed to the project “Highly accurate spectral photon counting CT for improved cancer diagnosis”

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality with an expected 10 million deaths annually. A very widely used imaging modality for diagnosing cancer is x-ray computed tomography (CT), which provides three-dimensional images of the human body is reconstructed from x-ray measurements. Despite its high usefulness, there are limitations with the current CT technology with respect to diagnostic quality and quantitative accuracy. The emerging photon-counting CT technology can overcome these limitations with its higher spatial resolution, lower image noise, and improved material-selective imaging.

To achieve the full potential of the technology, new image reconstruction methods need to be developed. Deep-learning-based image reconstruction, a new technology for image CT reconstruction, has demonstrated substantial image quality improvement and fast reconstruction. We will develop a deep-learning-based CT image reconstruction method for generating highly accurate photon counting images together with maps of image uncertainty, using a CT scanner prototype developed in our lab.

We will evaluate the usefulness of the new imaging technique for diagnosis and radiomic characterization of tumors. The anticipated outcome is that photon-counting spectral CT with deep-learning reconstruction can give drastically improved diagnostic quality and radiomic measurement accuracy without extra dose. This can lead to saved lives and new research avenues in the field of data-driven cancer diagnosis.