“I wanted to work with something challenging”

In 2016, Sidinh Luc was made a Wallenberg Academy Fellow and she has now returned from the USA to start her own research group at the Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine.

What does this distinction mean to you?

– It was of crucial importance to enable me to move back to Sweden in order to continue my research here. This program is five years in length, which makes it possible to assemble a research group from scratch, so it is very much appreciated. It is also an extremely prestigious distinction which I feel honored to have received, says Sidinh Luc.

Can you tell us a little about your research?

– I am studying different types of blood stem cells and how they vary depending on age. A lot happens as we become older and it has emerged that a certain type of blood stem cell is more common among older people, which correlates with the appearance of a certain type of leukemia in older people – whilst other blood stem cells are found in a greater number of leukemias that are more common in younger people. därför dra typer av leukemier är vanligarer med uppkomst av en viss typ av leukemier emierThe different types of blood stem cells are therefore believed to be involved in the emergence of different kinds of leukemias.

My question is: What are the differences between the various types of stem cell? I want to find out which different properties they have in the hope that this knowledge will help in the effective treatment of various diseases of the blood.

What were you doing before you came to KI?

– My family and I have just moved home from Boston, USA, where we’d been living for 5½ years and where I was working within the same area of research that I am now. Before that, I was researching at Oxford University, which is where I completed my doctoral project. I had the opportunity to move there with Sten Eirik Jacobsen, who had been my supervisor at Lund University and who then moved parts of his research operations to Oxford.

What form will your research group at HERM take?

– I have only just begun the work of assembling a completely new research team, so I’m currently in the process of writing job advertisements and looking for the right people. What I intend to do first is employ a Postdoc and a Lab Manager. There is also a potential doctoral student with whom I researched in the USA and who I’m hoping to recruit to the group.