Björn Reinius and Joyce Noble awarded the Prize for Innovation and Utilization 2025
Björn Reinius and Joyce Noble have developed a synthetic protection for RNA molecules that is stable and can be stored at room temperature. Their innovation simplifies aspects of biomedical research and enables new analytical methods.
Senior researcher Björn Reinius and research specialist Joyce Noble are awarded the Prize for Innovation and Utilization 2025.
The work of Björn Reinius research group is a very good example of how a seemingly limited discovery, as in this case a new research reagent, can have a big impact.
RNA biology is an exploding field of research with great potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of disease processes and to find new treatments, to a large degree thanks to advances in RNA-sequencing methods.
A major challenge is the need to protect RNA chains from degradation - a problem that the company Sequrna solves in a new way. Their work exemplifies how research needs can lead to groundbreaking innovations and economic benefits.
What does this award mean to you, Björn?
- It’s a recognition of the work we’ve put into transforming research into something that can be widely used and make a real impact, and it gives both energy and motivation to continue driving innovation forward.
What is your hope for the social benefit of the discovery?
- Our goal is to contribute to making RNA sequencing–based methods more accessible, cost-effective, and sustainable—something I believe we are already beginning to achieve. The underlying concept and vision of our technology are well suited to a wide range of biomedical applications and are likely to play a role in future diagnostic developments.
What does this award mean to you, Joyce?
- It’s an incredible honor to receive this award. What this prize means to me is that our hard work has been recognized by the scientific community at Karolinska Institutet, which is both inspiring and humbling.
What is your hope for the social benefit of the discovery?
- It is rewarding to see that SEQURNA’s products are already helping so many labs around the world. We hope that our inventions will pave the way for various innovative RNA-based methods that can help advance research in health care and drug discovery.
Extra comment:
- Karolinska Institutet and the Science Park community have been instrumental in transforming our ideas and inventions into market-ready products. I am especially grateful for the support from KI Innovations, KI Holdings, and the DRIVE start-up incubator program, which played a vital role in translating an academic discovery into a product and helpingour company SEQURNA to flourish into the success it is today.
Justification from the prize committee:
Björn Reinius and Joyce Noble have developed thermostable ribonuclease inhibitors with the potential to make a major impact in RNA research. RNA biology is an exploding field of research with great potential to create a deeper understanding of disease processes and to find novel treatments. A major challenge in RNA sequencing is the need to protect RNA molecules from degradation – a problem that this year's laureates have successfully addressed in an innovative way. Existing products are biological inhibitors (proteins) produced with recombinant technology. These are expensive, thermosensitive, require frozen storage and are transported to the user laboratories on dry ice. The instability and the fact that the production method leads to batch variation also impairs the reproducibility of biological experiments. The new ribonuclease inhibitors that Reinius and Noble have developed are synthetic, have no batch variation, can be produce at large scale, are highly stable and can be stored and transported at room temperature. This year's award winners exemplify well how a need in one's own research can lead to an innovation. Taking the step of commercializing these discoveries and making the product available to other researchers whilst at the same time creating economic benefit is inspiring. Reinius has also demonstrated previously his entrepreneurial skills to achieve important societal benefit. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he used his knowledge to quickly establish new testing methods that came into wide use in healthcare with millions of diagnostic tests.
Starting in 2022 Karolinska Institutet awarded a prize for innovation and utilization.
The prize will be awarded to one or more active researchers/research students (employed, adjunct or affiliated with KI).
If an individual cannot be considered to be behind the innovation on their own, a maximum of three people can share the prize.
Anyone can nominate one or more candidates. Self-nominations are not accepted.