Anna Dimberg awarded the Medicine Doctor Axel Hirsch Prize 2026

Anna Dimberg is professor and researcher at Uppsala University, at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology.

Dimberg is an internationally recognized cancer researcher with leading expertise in tumor immunology and vascular biology. She has established a strong research environment supported by prestigious grants from the ERC, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, and major cancer foundations.

The award citation  

Through a series of original and internationally acclaimed studies, culminating in a seminal publication in Cancer Cell in 2023, in which Anna Dimberg showed that tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) can be induced in glioma — an aggressive and treatment-resistant form of brain cancer — and that these structures enable local T-cell activation and enhanced anti-tumor immunity. The work challenges prevailing dogmas about the immunological uniqueness of the brain and establishes a completely new concept for how the tumor microenvironment and vascular structure can be reprogrammed for therapeutic benefit.

The studies combine advanced vascular biology, immunology and tumor anatomy with high methodological rigor and clear mechanistic anchoring. They represent a decisive breakthrough in understanding the interaction between blood vessels, the immune system and tumor tissue, and have already had a major impact in both basic and translational cancer research.

Anna Dimberg’s work thus clearly fulfils the intentions of the Hirsch Prize by combining scientific originality, medical relevance and long-term significance for the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer."

The laureate's reaction was: "Many thanks for this, this really made my day!"