KI researchers Carolina Hagberg and Jenny Mjösberg have been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant following a fiercely competitive application process. They will be using the money to further scientific knowledge about two major medical challenges: obesity-related cardiovascular disease and severe asthma.
The Consolidator grants are awarded by the European Research Council under the EU's programme for research and innovation. Amongst this year's grant recipients are two researchers at Karolinska Institutet, who have each been awarded EUR two million (roughly SEK 20 million) for five years.
When fat tissue affects the heart
Carolina Hagberg is a senior researcher and docent of cell and molecular biology at Karolinska Institutet. Her group's project, WATs-UP, explores the role played by adipose tissue in the development of obesity-related cardiovascular disease. Even through the association is a well-known one, what drives it has so far largely eluded scientists.
"Obesity gives rise to insulin resistance, high blood pressure and elevated levels of blood lipids, often simultaneously, which makes it hard to ascertain the exact role that the fat tissue has," explains Dr Hagberg , principal investigator at KI's Department of Medicine in Solna.
To come to grips with the problem, the group combines unique mouse models, a 3D model of human fat tissue and fat biopsies from patients with cardiovascular morbidity. In so doing, they are able to study how the uptake of lipids by the adipose tissue affects the earliest pathogenic changes in the vascular wall of the aorta.
"Our hypothesis is that it is altered lipid uptake into the adipose tissue, rather than just lipid release, that's one of the main culprits," explains Carolina Hagberg.
While the project is at the level of basic research, it has the clear potential to pave the way for future therapies.
"We hope to unravel unknown disease mechanisms and identify novel opportunities to protect people with obesity against cardiovascular comorbidities. That said, we also hope this will open up the adipose tissue as a niche for the development of new types of drugs to combat these diseases."
Severe asthma - and what actually happens in the airways
Jenny Mjösberg is professor of tissue immunology at KI's Department of Medicine in Huddinge. Her group's project, TARGET-AIR-LAB, concerns severe asthma, which afflicts roughly five per cent of all asthma patients and for which regular treatments are often inadequate.
"We are still somewhat in the dark about what happens in the airways of people with severe asthma," she says.
Using in-house developed techniques, they are able to extract a great deal of information from only tiny amounts of tissue taken direct from patients' airways. Their aim is to see what the inflammation looks like in severe asthma and understand how it changes when the patients are given modern biological drugs.
"We hope to learn a great deal about the inflammation and new ways not only of attacking it but also of predicting who will respond to new therapies," says Professor Mjösberg .
She explains that the application process was lengthy and thorough, but rewarding, and that she had many of her colleagues read it beforehand. She also did interview training with Dr Hagberg.
"The process has been one long thrill," she says.
Looking ahead
The ERC grant means a great deal to both research groups, both as a resource and as recognition of their work.
Professor Mjösberg believes that in a few years' time, her group will have come much closer to solving the mystery of severe asthma. They have already, she explains, started to see the initial results and that they are exploring a field that is still largely uncharted, since detailed analyses in humans have not been done before.
"This secures our position and will help us going forward," she says.
Dr Hagberg hopes that five years down the line, the project will have greatly improved the understanding the role adipose tissue plays in cardiovascular morbidity and their work will have opened up new research avenues. She describes the potential as great:
"We're convinced that the project will generate a lot of new knowledge and inspire exciting new future projects."
Grant for outstanding scientists
The ERC Consolidator Grant is awarded to outstanding scientists with 7-12 years' experience since obtaining their PhD and at a stage of their career where they can still consolidate their own independent research team. Applications are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers on the basis of excellence as the sole criterion.
A total of 3,121 applications from 44 countries were submitted for this year's ERC Consolidator Grants, of which 349, or just over 11 per cent, were awarded grants.
The grants are worth up to EUR two million for five years, with a possible EUR one million supplement to cover the costs of moving to the EU, equipment, facilities and other major outlays for experiments or fieldwork. The grants are awarded annually.
Source: ERC
