Largest donation to Lund University since 1666
The Mrs Berta Kamprad Foundation is donating 420 million SEK to cancer research at Lund University. This is the single largest donation to the institution since its founding in 1666. The administrative recipient is CREATE Health Translational Cancer Centre, which is located at Medicon Village, with Carl Borrebaeck, Professor of Immunotechnology, and Kristian Pietras, Professor of Molecular Medicine, as the lead researchers.
The donation is dedicated to translational cancer research, specifically applied cancer research in antibody and cell therapies, with the aim of improving disease prognosis and quality of life for today's cancer patients. The funds will be distributed over a five-year period and will support both existing senior researchers and new recruits.
The research is being conducted in collaboration with the Swiss Cancer Center and EPFL in Lausanne.
"The donation gives us a unique opportunity to investigate tangible challenges in translational cancer research due to its long-term commitment and funding size. This is an extremely rare possibility in cancer research, made possible by the foundation, and in combination with the innovation environment at Medicon Village holds great promise for shortening the path to clinical applications, for the benefit of today´s cancer patients," says Carl Borrebaeck.
"We are very grateful for the support from the Mrs Berta Kamprad Foundation that will enable us to accelerate our efforts to discover new targets for cancer treatments. The environment at Medicon Village where academic research is blended with an innovation spirit is critical to the success of our work," says Kristian Pietras.
Since its establishment in 1986, the Berta Kamprad Foundation has contributed more than 770 million SEK to cancer research at Lund University and Skåne University Hospital.
For more information, please read the full press release from Lund University (in Swedish).
For information on the Mrs Berta Kamprad Foundation for the Study and Control of Cancer, visit www.frubertakampradsstiftelse.se.
Photo: Kennet Ruona