Per Augustsson and Denis Music receiving grants from no-profit foundation owning Medicon Village

Medicon Village

This is the second of four texts introducing research projects awarded funds from “Mats Paulsson foundation for research, innovation and societal Development” in 2022.

Project 3/8: Acoustic separation of blood components

Principal applicant: Associate Professor Per Augustsson, Department of Biomedical Engineering, LTH, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University

Project start/end date: 1/1/2023 – 31/12/2024

Granted amount (SEK): 2,000,000

Blood is an extremely important source of information about our health and a component in various treatments, for example in connection with platelet transfusion in case of major bleeding and certain cancer therapy. During platelet donation, different blood components are currently separated using centrifugation. The method has limited precision and affects the quality of the blood that is returned to the donor after the platelets have been filtered out. The research group has recently discovered that when blood is irradiated by ultrasound, blood cells are packed tightly together by the ultrasound force and the possibility of separation of subgroups of blood cells arises. The project aims to investigate the potential for new methods where acoustic separation of blood components can replace centrifugation.

Project 4/8 Multilayer architecture of H2O2 non-enzymic sensors for biomedical applications

Principal applicant: Professor Denis Music, Faculty of Technology and Society, Department of Materials Science and Applied Mathematics, Malmö University

Project start/end date: 1/1/2023 – 31/12/2024

Granted amount (SEK): 1,600,000

There are many medical conditions where early detection of disease is followed by appropriate lifestyle interventions and treatment can lead to a longer, healthier life. This project is coming using a new instrument (Sputter system) to systematically explore biosensors, which play a important role in the clinical detection of hydrogen peroxide-related diseases such as Parkinson’s and cancer. The research platform includes work on multilayer structure with additional nano-structuring and is unique in its kind. Early diagnosis of fatal diseases is of enormous importance for society and the beneficial effect of the project’s research results is great. 

The foundation behind Medicon Village donates SEK 15.6 million to life science research in Malmö/Lund

When PEAB founder Mats Paulsson created Medicon Village ten years ago, it was with a new non-profit foundation as owner. The purpose of the foundation is to promote research within life science with the aim of achieving better conditions for people’s health and life. For 2022, this and two other foundations created by Mats Paulsson, have decided to distribute SEK 25.7 million to ten research projects in Malmö/Lund. Since 2005, these foundations have donated a total of SEK 166 million to research.

The non-profit foundation that owns Medicon Village, “Mats Paulsson foundation for research, innovation and societal development”, has decided to donate SEK 15.6 million to purposes that promote research in medicine and other life sciences with the goal of benefiting health care, development, innovation and community building in Skåne county. This year’s eight recipients work at Malmö University, Lund University and Lund University of Technology.

At the same time, two other foundations created by Mats Paulsson distribute a further total of SEK 10.1 million to two recipients at Lund University; SEK 9.6 million from “Mats Paulsson foundation” and SEK 0.5 million from “Stefan Paulsson cancer fund”.

The idea behind both the Mats Paulsson Foundations and Medicon Village is to contribute to new projects around important research and innovation that benefit people’s opportunities for a better life. The model is that returns on capital together with surpluses from the activities within Medicon Village go back to research.