Tag: Prize

I am very happy to share the news that I have been awarded with the Gothenburg Society of Medicine and the Sahlgrenska Academy’s prize to young researchers for our research on the effects of antibiotics on bacteria, including, of course, antibiotic resistance.

I am incredibly honoured by being selected for this award. I am also thrilled with that the Gothenburg Society of Medicine, which is a society mostly for medical doctors, sees the value in our broad, one-health, take on antibiotic resistance as well as other effect that antibiotics may have on microbes, both in the human body and in the environment. The recognition of antibiotic resistance as a one-health problem with solutions both within and outside of the typical medical setting is instrumental for our ability to curb future resistance development.

The award ceremony will take place in connection with the Gothenburg Society of Medicine’s closing meeting on 2 December, where I will present our research together with the senior awardee Professor Claes Ohlsson, who is awarded for his groundbreaking research on osteoporosis.

I am happy to announce that Cancer- och Allergifonden [the Cancer and Allergy Foundation] have awarded me with the first Lennart Sparell prize. The prize was instated in memory of the foundations founder – Lennart Sparell, who passed away last year – and is awarded to researchers (or other persons) who have thought outside-of-the-box or challenged the current paradigms. A particular emphasis is given to research on environmental pollutants that affect human health through food or environmental exposure.

Naturally, I am honored to be the recipient of this prize. The award was motivated by the research I have done on the role of ecological and evolutionary processes in the external environment in driving antibiotic resistance development, and how that can have consequences for human health. Particularly, I am happy that the research that I, Joakim Larsson, Erik Kristiansson and a few others on the role of environmental processes in the development of antibiotic resistance and the recruitment of novel resistance genes are given attention. This view, which perhaps do not challenge the paradigm but at the very least points to an alternative risk scenario, has often been neglected when environmental antibiotic resistance has been discussed.

The prize will be awarded on a ceremony on June 10 in Stockholm, but I would already now take the opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in the research being recognized, particularly Joakim Larsson and Erik Kristiansson – this award is to a very very large extent to your merit.