Thanks to long-term funding by the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg Foundation, kidney research in Gothenburg will have a center all its own. The foundation, Sahlgrenska Academy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital recently signed a letter of intent.
A seminar arranged by Kunskap Göteborg, a venue for supporting and disseminating Gothenburg-based research as part of the city’s 400th anniversary celebration in 2021, presented the project under the working name of the Lundberg Foundation Center for Kidney Research The foundation took the original initiative.
According to chairman Björn Aschan, “Lundberg-sponsored laboratories are currently conducting cancer and orthopedic, but not kidney, research. The project is our contribution to the upcoming quadricentennial. We hope that the center will be ready to go by the time the celebration begins.”
Signed in early February, the letter of intent specifies that the research center be established as soon as possible, perhaps by the end of the year. The plan is for relocation to new premises at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in 2021.
The center will provide a creative setting for various fields of both basic and clinical renal transplant and kidney research under the same roof. Current kidney research in Gothenburg is being directed by Professors Jenny Nyström and Börje Haraldsson, who were unable to attend today’s seminar, as well as Professor Michael Olausson, who presented an overview of their efforts.
“Basic and patient-oriented research have been collaborating more closely over the past 15 years,” he said. “Even when surgeons devise new methods that work well, basic molecular research is needed to fully understand why.”
Next year, the center will launch clinical trials of a new medication for metastasized kidney cancer. The medication is based on the toxin in the cortinarius rubellus mushroom.
Olle Larkö, dean of Sahlgrenska Academy, remarked during the seminar that the new center reflects the productive research climate that has evolved between the university hospital and the academy.
“I would like to thank the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg Foundation for this project, as well as congratulate Börje Haraldsson, Jenny Nyström and Michael Olausson on the new doors of opportunity it opens. We will do everything we can to show that we deserve this honor.”
Funding will include both appropriations and research grants for instruments and other equipment. One purpose of the center will be to facilitate recruitment of young and internationally qualified researchers.
About the IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg Foundation
The IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg Foundation promotes cancer, kidney, orthopedic and other medical research. IngaBritt Lundberg established the foundation in memory of her husband Arne, managing director of AB Fortia (the parent company of Pharmacia AB) and a member of many Swedish boards. Sahlgrenska Academy awarded her an honorary medical degree in 1995. She bequeathed additional assets to the foundation upon her death on June 6, 1999.