Camilla Engblom one of this year’s Wallenberg Academy Fellows
One of the promising young researchers receiving Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s basic research grant this year is Camilla Engblom at the Department of Medicine, Solna. She will use the funding to study a piece of the puzzle that could help develop more precise and personalized treatments for cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.
The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s basic research grant provides five years of funding and aims to give young researchers the opportunity to tackle challenging research questions. Four promising young researchers at KI are receiving the grant this year, and Camilla Engblom at the Department of Medicine, Solna is one of them.
Congratulations Camilla, please tell us a bit more about your research project!
“Thank you! We will study B cells, the antibodies they produce, and their microenvironment. By linking gene expression and interactions between B cells, their molecular specificity, and the surrounding environment, we can gain a deeper understanding of how these cells develop and change during disease progression. Understanding this could make it possible to develop more precise treatments, and we hope that our research can pave the way for new immunotherapies and personalized medicines for cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.”
How will you use the grant?
“The grant will enable us to use advanced technologies to map B cells in tissue and further analyze their molecular properties using mouse models and patient samples. We will also produce antibodies based on the B-cell receptors we identify, to explore what they react to. The grant also makes it possible to expand the research group and recruit more curious and talented people to our lab!”