KI researchers awarded over SEK 35 million by the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund
The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund's allocation reflects the needs that exist in areas such as new technology and precision medicines. This year's call for proposals means that SEK 125 million will be allocated to 62 projects in the field of childhood cancer, of which SEK 35,400,000 will go to researchers at Karolinska Institutet.
The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund is the single largest financier of Swedish childhood cancer research and supports projects that go from basic basic research, via clinical patient-related research to research that follows up on how survivors of childhood cancer feel, both physically and mentally.
Great need for new drugs
The research projects that are granted funding reflect the needs that exist, according to Britt-Marie Frost, the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund's Head of Research.
"It's very much about being able to reduce both over- and under-treatment through new technology and access to more genetic information, but also to find new drugs such as immunotherapies and precision drugs that we can then combine in different ways for better effect," she says. "There is a great need to develop new drugs and more personalised treatments. We need to get more of the new types of drugs that are now being developed for testing and approval for children."
The projects at Karolinska Institutet that received the largest grants are:
Rikard Wicksell at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, is awarded SEK 3,900,000 over three years for the project "DAHLIA-ung: en behovsanpassad digital behandling för unga med långvarig smärta efter cancersjukdom" (DAHLIA-young: a needs-adapted digital treatment for young people with chronic pain after cancer).
Caroline Palm Apergi at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, is awarded SEK 3,000,000 over 3 years for the project "Utveckling av RNAi prodroger för precisionsmedicin mot barnleukemi" (Development of RNAi prodrugs for precision medicine against childhood leukemia).
Nikolas Herold at the Department of Women's and Children's Health, has been awarded SEK 3,000,000 over 3 years for the project "Bekämpa cytostatikaresistens och utveckla nya kombinationsbehandlingar för barncancer" (Combating cytostatic resistance and developing new combination treatments for childhood cancer).
Malin Wickström Näsman at the Department of Women's and Children's Health, is awarded SEK 3,000,000 over 3 years for the project "Nya angreppssätt för differentieringterapi i neuroblastom" (New approaches for differentiation therapy in neuroblastoma).
Hong Qian at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, is awarded SEK 3,000,000 over 3 years for the project "Dolda leukemiceller i huden, en orsak till behandlingssvikt och återfall vid AML?" (Hidden leukaemia cells in the skin, a cause of treatment failure and relapse in AML?).