ICMC's new premises soon ready
The joint (KI / AstraZeneca) research center Integrated Cardio Metabolic Center, ICMC, founded in June 2013, is soon moving in to the renovated premises at Novum.
- Everything is going according to plan and we keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way, says Malin Engberg, project coordinator at ICMC.
What is left to do?
- All cell culture labs are ready. Ventilation and electrical work to these rooms is very complicated, but it is now finishing up. Parts like inner windows and some other small items are still to be in place. Walls, floors and ceilings are finished. Virtually the entire department is repainted, except the offices, but those will also be painted, says Malin.
In October, ICMC will most likely be able to move-in various equipment and at the end of the month there will be a final inspection of the new premises.
- So early November should be a good guess that we can start moving in, Malin says.
How many employees have already started to work at ICMC?
- So far, we have two research groups: Ken Chien and Ralph Knöll. Ken's group is still working at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, CMB, but we expect that about 8 persons will come here to ICMC at the end of the year. The rest of Ken's group will continue to work at CMB.
- Ralph is recruiting to his group at the moment and so far he has recruited Byambajav Buyandelger, who is working in our loan lab at present. Then four more new research group leaders have been appointed: Emil Hansson, Jaakko Patrakka, Myriam Aouadi and Rickard Sandberg.
How big is ICMC supposed to be?
- We don´t know at this point, but we are aiming for between 30-40 people to begin with.
What are the plans for the near future for ICMC?
- The reconstruction of our premises enters its final stage, and then we go full speed with the groups moving in and recruitment to get the groups as complete as possible.
New co-workers at ICMC
Ralph Knöll
Professor, MD, PhD. Since March 2014 Chief Scientist at AstraZeneca and PI at ICMC/Karolinska, Stockholm, Sweden. 2009-2014: Professor and Chair of Myocardial Genetics at Imperial College, London, UK. 2004–2009: Professor of Cardiovascular Molecular Genetics and Head of Working Group on Cardiovascular Molecular Genetics at the Georg August University, Göttingen, Germany.
Byambajav Buyandelger
PhD in molecular biology and genetics from Humangenetics Institute, Faculty of Medicine at Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany in 2007. Postdoctoral fellow in cardiovascular research at Heart Center, University of Göttingen. Last 4 years she continued her research at National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London in the UK. Since June 2014 she holds Research Associate position at ICMC, Karolinska Institutet.
Emil Hansson
MD, PhD from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet 2006. 2007 – 2012: Postdoctoral research fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. Fall 2013: received a junior researcher position (“forskarassistenttjänst”) in regenerative cardiology at Karolinska Institutet with a start date summer/fall 2014.
Jaakko Patrakka
MD, PhD in Renal Medicine/Pediatric Nephrology, University of Helsinki, Finland 2001. Current position: Associate Professor (docent) and Head of Division at the Division of Matrix Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet and Resident in nephrology/pathology, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge.
Myriam Aouadi
PhD in Life Science, University of Nice/Sophia-Antipolis, France, 2005. Post-doctoral associate (2006-2009), Research assistant professor (2009-2012) and Assistant professor (2012-) at the University of Massachusetts, USA.
Rickard Sandberg
Assistant Professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet. PhD Karolinska Institutet 2004, Postdoc MIT. Sandberg Lab
Ken Chien
Chien research group