KI researchers receives grants from Swedish Fund for Research Without Animal Experiments

Three Karolinska Institutet researchers have received grants from research foundation the Swedish Fund for Research Without Animal Experiments. This year, the foundation will be dividing SEK 2.3 million between 14 different projects.

Ewa Ellis of KI’s Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC) will receive SEK 200,000 for her project on Large scale production of human liver spheroids.

Pekka Kohonen of KI’s Institute of Environmental Medicine has received a follow-up grant of SEK 150,000 for the continuation of his project Deepened mechanistic validation of toxicity pathway functionality in a patented analysis tool for toxicity prediction.

Hanna Karlsson of KI’s Institute of Environmental Medicine receives SEK 200,000 for the project New cell models for improved assessment of genotoxicity and cancer risk of nanoparticles.

What does this grant mean to you, Hanna Karlsson?

“It feels great to receive a grant that is so clearly aimed at the goal of replacing animal experiments. I have great hopes that it will prove possible to develop an improved methodology for health-risk assessment that is based on information from cell studies rather than animal experiments. It is important in allowing us test more nanoparticles more rapidly, thus contributing to a more sustainable development.”

What are you researching?

“I research the damaging effects of nanoparticles; small particles that are being produced and used on an increasing scale industrially and in various consumer goods. Primarily I study their effects on lung cells and mechanisms that can lead to the development of cancer. One overarching goal is to understand which particles are damaging and why.”

What do you use instead of animal experiments?

“I use various cellular models and attempt to develop and test new models that better replicate an actual exposure. Among other things, we cultivate several cell types together, in what are known as co-cultures, expose the cells to an air mixture of particles and study the changes when lung cells are exposed to a low dose of nanoparticles for a relatively long period of time.