Today Nature Communications published the article "Multianalyte serology in home-sampled blood enables an unbiased assessment of the immune response against SARS-CoV-2" with MedTechLabs's Niclas Roxhed as first author.
Read the full scientific article at the Nature Communications website, here.
Also, read about the project on home-testing of Covid-19, here (in swedish).
On April 29 2021 Måns Marklund, CEO Cascelotte, presented new methods for the analysis and valuation of economic effects from research and innovation. Watch the video from the seminar here (27 minuter).
Link to video: youtu.be/wU73dc9_H98
Nature Communications has published “COVID-19 pathophysiology may be driven by an imbalance in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system” written by MedTechLabs researcher Johan Lundberg with co-authors.
Read the full article here.
Read about Johan Lundberg and his research at MedTechLabs here.
The foundation Stockholm Pandemic Resilience donates 200 000 SEK to the project "Enhanced diagnose of patients with long COVID", with project managers Docent Peder Olofsson, Karolinska Institutet and Professor Henrik Hult, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, practising at MedTechLabs.
This is the first donation the centre gets and where the full amount is directed to these researchers. The project will, among other things, use advanced mathematic analysis to find the causes to why some patients are affected by long COVID.
”We are very grateful that the foundation Stockholm Pandemic Resilience has chosen to support the project and welcomes additional foundations, companies and individuals who which to accelerate the important research conducted by Peder Olofsson och Henrik Hult. We also want to express our gratitude towards KTH Development Office for their professional handling of the donation which means that the researchers can start their work immediately”, says Johan Schuber, Executive Director MedTechLabs
The foundation Stockholm Pandemic Resilience stands behind the initiative WeFightCovid which gathers over 50 individuals and companies who, on a non-profit basis, engage in supporting the healthcare and society in the fight against the Corona virus. Read more about WeFightCovid and Stockholm Pandemic Resilience here.
Göran Gustafsson foundation's grand price for Research at Uppsala University and KTH. Mats Persson is awarded for developing his research in the field of engineering physics at KTH as a young promising researcher. The 3-years grant amounts to SEK 2 750 000.
About the Göran Gustafsson Foundation for Research at Uppsala University and KTH foundation:
Göran Gustafsson (1919 – 2003) was born in the far north of Sweden, in a small village 50 kilometers outside of Gällivare. He became a successful businessman, notably in real estate. The sale of buildings created an economic basis for Göran Gustafsson’s donations to two foundations that promote basic scientific research in the fields of biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics and medicine. Through these donations, Göran’s vision was to provide Swedish researchers with the prerequisite conditions for competing with the best researchers in the world. The two foundations support active researchers.
In 1986 Göran Gustafsson created a foundation to support basic research in the field of medicine at Uppsala University and in the field of engineering physics at both the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Uppsala University. The Göran Gustafsson Foundation for Research at Uppsala University and KTH started with a donation of 136 million Swedish SEK and currently Awards 14 million crowns in grants annually.
Recently the GE Healthcare acquisition of Swedish Prismatic Sensors, a spinoff from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, was disclosed. The technique is presumed to revolutionize the CT-area and also shows the potential that collaboration between academia, healthcare and industry has for Swedish medical technology.
The founder of Prismatic Sensors, professor in physics Mats Danielsson, is also one of the initiators of and research leader at MedTechLabs, an interdisciplinary centre for medical technology, run by KTH Royal Institute of technology, Karolinska Institute, KI and Region Stockholm.
– The acquisition is a recognition not only of the research from KTH but also of that the region holds world class in the area of medical technology. This is probably the biggest event within computer tomography since the technology came into use in the 70ies, says Mats Danielsson.
Together with the KI-researcher and physician Staffan Holmin, Mats Danielsson also leads the area “medical imaging and minimal invasive methods” at MedTechLabs, where some of the clinical tests of the new technology has been conducted.
– This technology brings many advantages to the healthcare. It will be easier to distinguish between different tissues and materials. Tumors in early progress and inflammatory conditions will be easier to detect. Larger richness of details could make some invasive interventions possible to avoid and we hope to be able to diagnose stroke in the cerebellum and the brain stem more effectively, Staffan Holmin explains.
He adds that lower doses of radiation are of importance for all patients, not least when examining children. Staffan Holmin also means that the result is a school example of how Swedish basic research and collaboration between medical and universities of technology could drive innovations to great benefit for both patients as well as the healthcare and the industry.
– This is also the underlying strategy for MedTechLabs, where researchers from KTH and KI are able to examine patients in a hospital environment with capabilities for advanced care at close hands. Researchers, industry companies and hospitals from other countries are very curious on our setup, since most places in the world lacks similar infrastructure to study medical technology in collaboration with tehnical and medical universities, industry and healthcare, says Staffan Holmin.
In the 1970-ies, GE Healthcare was first in the world to introduce a commercial CT-scanner and since then it has continued to develop the technique. In 1979, Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for the research leading to computer tomography.
Through the acquisition of Prismatic Sensors, the company has increased its presence in the medical technology cluster of Stockholm-Uppsala, where it is a large employer with approximately 250 people employed across research, manufacturing, sales and administration. With the acquisition of Prismatic Sensors, GE Healthcare welcomes the company’s highly skilled researchers and strengthens its’ position within imaging.
– Our Molecular Imaging team in Uppsala is a strategic part of GE Healthcare with both technical development and manufacturing playing a central role in our portfolio. Now, with the acquisition of Prismatic Sensors and the further development of next generation photon counting CT technology, our Swedish-based GE Healthcare teams will continue to contribute to the health of millions of people worldwide, says Wei Shen, global general manager for Premium CT at GE Healthcare.
Already before the acquisition of Prismatic Sensors, GE Healthcare had collaborated several years with Mats Danielsson. It started with informal contact in 2015, after which goals were set for the development work. GE Healthcare also lent out the CT-scanner that Mats and his team later modified with their technology, which uses silicon-based detector materials instead of those based on cadmium. Unlike cadmium, silicon-based detectors have the potential to provide superior spectral resolution while maintaining a high spatial resolution.
– The Karolinska Institute is also already an important partner to GE Healthcare. There are several areas of collaboration on going not only in CT, but in MR, as well as Molecular Imaging.
Wei Shen says that it is with great interest that her company is following the build-up of the patient-oriented research infrastructure that MedTechLabs has started in connection to the new Karolinska University Hospital in Solna.
See also press release from GE Healthcare:
www.ge.com/news/press-releases/ge-healthcare-pioneers-photon-counting-ct-with-prismatic-sensors-acquisition
Johan Schuber, KTH, and Staffan Holmin, KI, has been appointed new Executive Director and Vice Director for MedTechLabs.
The former Director for the centre, Peta Sjölander, chose to leave her assignment this summer. MedTechLabs is very thankful for her efforts.
The mission for the new management is to foster collaboration for world class research and clinical environments with MedTechLabs as a whole. The Executive Director will be in charge of operations and administration including budget, annual activity plan and also to foster regional collaborations. Johan Schuber, MSc Physics, is Senior Research Advisor for the Strategic Research Areas (SRA) at KTH. Over the years Johan has worked successfully to establish a number of innovative collaborations at the IVA and at KTH, including MedTechLabs. Staffan Holmin is Professor in Clinical Neuroimaging and Scientific Director for the MedTechLabs Research area Imaging and minimal invasive methods. Staffan is also consultant at the department of Neuroradiology at Karolinska University Hospital.
With the help of image analysis and artificial intelligence researchers and personel from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska University Hospital at MedTechLabs will assess X-rays to improve the caregiving.
The lungs are severly affected by the new Corona virus. At the same time healthcare and researchers experience a difference between what the X-rays show and how the patient feels.
– Studies show that AI may separate between covid-19 from other types of pneumonia. Our goal is to enhance the diagnostic accuracy further, says Mats Danielsson, Professor in Medical Imagineg at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and researcher at MedTechLabs in an articel at the university newswebsite.
Read the full news article (in Swedish).
For several years, RIKEN – Center for Integrative Medical Science in Yokohama, KI and SciLifeLab have been organising a series of symposia, alternating between Yokohama, Japan and Stockholm. The 6th symposium was held in Yokohama, addressing biomedical data for artificial intelligence.
The purpose of the symposium was to produce a White Paper detailing the biomedical/life science areas for which RIKEN, Karolinska Institute and SciLifeLab see a large potential for AI contributions to life science, and also to generate biomedical/life science reference datasets to attract AI researchers and open these datasets at the RIKEN and SciLifeLab Data Centers.
– A huge and rather wonderful co-creation session produced some insights that probably could not have been arrived at in any other room in the world, the competence and engagement from the participants was amazing to witness, says Magnus Bohman.
MedTechLabs financed the participance of six researchers from Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and SciLifeLab:
Erik Aurell (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, also speaker)
Magnus Boman (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, also speaker)
Andreas Lennartsson (Karolinska Institutet, also speaker)
Elisabet Einarsdottir (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SciLifeLab)
Alma Andersson (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SciLifeLab)
Ludvig Bergenstråhle (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SciLifeLab)
A core group of authors from the symposium has been continuing working on the White Paper with the goal to publish in an international peer-reviewed journal in 2020.
For more information, please contact: carsten.daub@ki.se
The award is given to Staffan Holmin for his groundbreaking research work with catheters that can be directed to specific parts of central organs via blood vessels, to remove blood clots, to take tissue samples or to place materials into the body.
From the foundation press release:
“Hans Wigzell’s Research Foundation today awards researcher Staffan Holmin. Holmin receives the award of SEK 600,000 for his groundbreaking technology with sophisticated catheters that can be directed to specific brain parts via the blood vessel system. These catheters can not only remove life-threatening blood clots but also be directed to leave the bloodstream and, for example, go into a local tumor, sample or submit material for further treatment. The clinical consequences of Holmin’s pioneering research are very positive, and Staffan Holmin is also a very good lecturer who makes the viewer fascinated by the glory of the human body.”
About Hans Wigzell: Professor of Immunology, Karolinska Institutet. Former Principal of the Karolinska Institute, Head of the Infectious Disease Institute, the State Bacteriological Laboratory and chair of the Karolinska Institute Nobel Committee. Hans is also a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences IVA.
About the Hans Wigzell Research Foundation: The Foundation will promote it’s purpose of supporting scientific research and education in the medical field, especially by awarding scholarships and other grants. The foundation may also arrange and/or support seminars and conferences.