Max Planck establishes a new research laboratory at Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institutet and Max Planck Society, Germany, have signed an agreement on a new joint research laboratory at Karolinska Institutet specialising in congenital metabolic diseases.

The new Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing – Karolinska Institutet Laboratory is to be established in the Department of Laboratory medicine on Karolinska Institutet’s Solna campus, and will deepen existing research into congenital metabolic diseases.

“This initiative is part of Karolinska Institutet’s strategy to tie itself more closely to internationally leading research institutes,” says Karolinska Institutet vice-chancellor, Anders Hamsten.

At the Max Planck Institute in Cologne (the partner organisation) this research has, to date, mostly been done using animal models, and a new laboratory at Karolinska Institutet will offer fresh opportunities to collaborate using, amongst other resources, the unique patient material to which Karolinska Institutet’s leading scientists have access.

“Even if we’ll be collaborating on a small scale at first, it’s important to both parties,” says Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, dean of research at Karolinska Institutet. “Together, we’ll advance our research in a way that would have been impossible had we been working alone.”

The collaborative programme is due to commence in 2015, and will run for five years under a common research group leader and with researchers recruited from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and visiting researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Cologne. There is also provision in the programme for doctoral students and postdocs to join as visiting researchers in both cities. Karolinska Institutet and the Max Planck Institute are investing the equivalent of 8.5 million kronor each in the programme.