Amanda Andersson-Rolf at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded the Swedish Foundations' Starting Grant 2026. With this funding, she will study acinar cells in the pancreas - research that may contribute to new treatments for pancreatitis.
Swedish Foundations' Starting Grant is a collaboration between several private foundations that fund outstanding early-career researchers. Amanda Andersson-Rolf, assistant professor at the Department of medical biochemistry and biophysics at K I, receives funding from the Erling-Persson Foundation .
- The long-term support is a game-changer. It allows me and my team to ask big questions and build new models. These things may take longer to answer, and the support gives us the time and resources to focus on the science, says Amanda Andersson-Rolf .
Research on the pancreas
More than 90 percent of the pancreas consists of acinar cells, which produce digestive enzymes. If the pancreas is damaged, these enzymes can begin to break down the tissue, leading to pancreatitis - a serious condition and a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. However, acinar cells are difficult to study because they cannot be kept alive in the lab.
To overcome this, Amanda Andersson-Rolf's research group uses a "mini-organ" that mimics the developing pancreas and enables the development of acinar cells in the laboratory. At the same time, models of adult tissue are being developed to study how disease processes.
- By studying how the pancreas develops, we can create a blueprint for how the adult organ is formed. We can then use this knowledge to develop new ways to treat the adult pancreas when it´s injured, she says.
Enabling the next step
The grant enables Amanda Andersson-Rolf to establish her research programme in Sweden, including investments in laboratory equipment. It also provides the opportunity to recruit and develop a research team over the long term.
- I hope our research will lead to new knowledge about human pancreas biology, specifically how the organ develops, and contribute to better treatments, says Amanda Andersson-Rolf.
The Swedish Foundations' Starting Grant
The Swedish Foundations' Starting Grant (SFSG) is aimed at early-career researchers who have received top scores in applications to the European Research Council (ERC) but were not funded. Its purpose is to strengthen their chances in future funding calls.
SFSG is a collaboration between seven private research funders: the Erling-Persson Foundation, the Kempe Foundations, the Knowledge Foundation (KK Foundation), the Olle Engkvist Foundation, the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation, the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and ÅForsk.
