The Sven och Ebba-Christina Hagberg Prize 2020 is awarded to Elizabeth Arkema and Marcus Buggert
The Board of Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg's foundation has decided to award Elizabeth Arkema and Marcus Buggert the foundations personal prize and a research grant, for a total of SEK 470,000 each. The prize will be awarded at the annual Installation Ceremony at the Karolinska Institutet in October 2021.
Elizabeth Arkema at the Department of Medicine in Solna is awarded the prize “for her population-based studies concerning the inflammatory disease sarcoidosis”.
She has built a unique data repository leveraging the power of Swedish population-based data with biobanked blood samples from well-characterized and longitudinally followed clinical cohorts. Elizabeth’s research focuses on identifying the links between genes, inflammation and lifestyle factors which cause sarcoidosis, and how these factors can be used to identify novel phenotypes and predict prognosis.
Marcus Buggert at the Department of Medicine in Huddinge receives the award "for his studies on specific populations of T cells and their importance for our defense against viral infections."
Marcus Buggert's research aims to use new technology platforms on model systems and unique patient materials to be able to answer how T cells recognize and fight viral infections and tumors in tissues. This knowledge can increase our understanding of how T cells control viruses and tumors and in the future lead to new treatment strategies against these diseases.
The purpose of the Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg Foundation is to stimulate and promote scientific research, preferably in the medical and biochemical fields, and each year awards research support to a female and male prominent young researcher in Sweden. The Foundation's grants and awards go to the different categories every two years. In nomination matters, the foundation collaborates with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Karolinska Institutet.
Sven Hagberg (1894-1961) was a civil engineer and grain chemist. He developed a new method for measuring baking properties of flour. The method, "Hagberg Falling Number", is used worldwide today. Ebba-Christina Hagberg (1900-1972) was involved in association work and shared her husband's interest in foreign cultures.