Niklas Björkström awarded the Eric K. Fernström prize 2025
Professor Niklas Björkström at the Institution of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), Karolinska Institutet, is awarded the Eric K. Fernströms prize for younger, especially talented and promising researcher for "his outstanding research on natural killer (NK) cells in humans."
Niklas Björkström, researcher at the Department of Medicine in Huddinge (MedH) KI, has discovered significant pathways for the development and differentiation of natural killer cells (NK cells) in humans. He has identified a new developmental pathway for human NK cells and demonstrated that they can exhibit adaptive immune cell-like properties.
These findings have challenged the perception that NK cells are solely innate immune cells and have important implications for how they can target and eliminate infections and cancer.
Niklas Björkström's discoveries are now being tested in clinical trials against cancer. Since establishing his laboratory, he has continued to make progress, including the discovery of mechanisms for antiviral NK cell responses and how NK cells support uterine health during pregnancy.
The laureate will be awarded during Research Day in Lund at the beginning of November. The prize consists of a monetary award and a diploma.
Justification from the prize committee:
"Professor Niklas Björkström is awarded the prize for his translational, innovative, and clinically relevant research on natural killer (NK) cells. Among other things, he has discovered new properties of these cells, which increases our understanding of the immune system. The findings are now being translated into clinical trials of NK cell therapy against cancer. The research group has also mapped how NK cells affect reproductive ability and pregnancy."
The Eric K Fernström Foundation
The Eric K Fernström Foundation was formed in 1978 to promote scientific and medical research. The primary purpose of the Foundation is to make awards of monetary prizes to researchers who have made outstanding contributions within the medical sciences. Fernström’s special desire was to stimulate younger researchers. The Foundation therefore makes one award of a Nordic prize and one award to young medical researchers active in Sweden. Each one of Sweden’s medical faculties designates its own prize winner