News from the Department of Pharmacy

With funding from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Alexandra Teleki, researcher in drug delivery, and AstraZeneca are taking the next important step in using nanotechnology to develop a new and effective treatment against inflammatory bowel disease.

In an ongoing survey study, Ukrainian refugees' experiences of seeking and receiving medical care in Europe are mapped. "Now we need the public's help to spread the survey via social media. It's a small effort that will make a big difference for people in need," says Nataliia Khanyk, Visiting researcher at the Department of Pharmacy.

How about a six-week summer internship at one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies? We asked Tilde Hagelin, pharmacy student at Uppsala University, and Frederik Dörr, Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca.

“My work at Strike Pharma was a highly educational experience,” states Amanda Gustafsson, master's student with a focus on biopharmaceuticals and one of six future pharmaceutical experts selected for this summer’s internships at the national competence center SweDeliver's industrial partners.

The Department of Pharmacy has now achieved equality in terms of the number of men
and women working as Professors as Maria (Mia) Kjellsson was appointed Professor of Pharmacokinetics on August 29. We congratulate both the Department and Mia!
Mia has been employed at Uppsala University since 2002, with a short break for postdoc 2009-2010. She completed her PhD Studies in 2008 with the thesis Methodological Studies on Models and Methods for Mixed-Effects Categorical Data Analysis and has worked as an Associate Professor in Pharmacokinetics since 2014, first at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences and then at the Department of Pharmacy.

With a virtual intestine and an amped up 3D printer, Christel Bergström is on her way to alter pharmacy as we know it. "We are on an incredibly inspiring journey that would not be possible anywhere but here in Uppsala," she states from her own laboratory in the heart of the Swedish life sciences.

The Faculty of Pharmacy congratulates Paarkavi Udayakumar and Yuming Zhang, PhD students at the Department of Pharmacy, on receiving awards for outstanding poster presentations at the Controlled Release Society Annual meeting 2023 in Las Vegas.

Wednesday 4 October, SweDeliver invites to half-time seminar: Self-assembly of therapeutic peptides with Ellen Brunzell, PhD student at the Department of medicinal chemistry. Half-time seminars with Marco Tjakra, Xiguo He and Rebekkah Hammar at the Department of Pharmacy will follow during the autumn semester.

"Fantastic science in a fantastic environment" and "Immensely successful" are some views on Cerebrovascular Biology 2023: The international conference that in late June brought 360 researchers with a focus on diseases in the blood vessels of the brain to Uppsala University and the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Elin Svensson, Senior lecturer at the Department of Pharmacy, receives the 2023 Oscar prize, an award presented to young, promising scientists at Uppsala University who "offers the greatest promise of continued academic writings at the University".

In the QS World University Ranking 2024, Uppsala University advances ten positions, currently reaching number 24 in the field of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. Looking at individual researchers, this year's rankings also provide inspiring reading for the Faculty of Pharmacy, where, among others, Anna Orlova and Ola Söderberg enter the lists of the foremost in their disciplines.

27-29 November, Competence centers SweDeliver and NextBioForm will host the New Horizons in Drug Delivery and Formulation 2023 conference, an international arena where academia and industry meet in Uppsala to present the latest scientific advances in drug formulation and delivery.

With frontline research and Swedish Midsummer festivities in a Viking environment as an extra attraction, Uppsala University is all set to host Cerebrovascular Biology 2023, the international summit gathering 350 participants from five continents.

Alexandra Teleki and Ann-Christin Jacobsen of SweDeliver have received a Best Paper Award for their article Intrinsic lipolysis rate for systematic design of lipid-based formulations, published in the scientific journal Drug Delivery and Translational Research Special Issue May 2023.

Margareta Hammarlund-Udenaes, Professor em. and former Dean at the Faculty of Pharmacy, is awarded Uppsala University's Elder Gustaf Adolf Medal in gold for her many significant contributions.

“The new technology offers fantastic opportunities for pharmaceutical research. Thus, slowing down the ongoing progress might relegate Sweden to an international backwater,” says Per Larsson, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy who in 2022 led a project at Uppsala University's interdisciplinary initiative AI4Research.

Can you invent new drugs and be a pop star at the same time? Join in as Alice, David, Nadia and Valter, seventh graders at the Uppsala Music Classes, visit Uppsala University's Faculty of Pharmacy to find out if it is true that some of the world's best researchers work in their hometown (English subtitles available).

With funding from the UKRI Medical Research Council, Uppsala University's Faculty of Pharmacy and the Scottish University of the Highlands and Islands along with NHS Highland have initiated a collaboration to implement an environmental perspective when prescribing drugs - and ambitions reach even further.

In a new article, Benyamin Naranjani and Per Larsson of SweDeliver, show that decreased peristaltic wave speed can increase the maximum concentration of permeation enhancers and macromolecules at the epithelial surface with 397 and 380 percent respectively.

Taking a promising substance the full distance from laboratory to treatment requires large resources. Consequently, rare diseases are seldom first in line when new ideas are tried. Now the Faculty of Pharmacy is joining several European consortia on the outlook for new therapies among well-known drugs.

Current research shows how pharmaceuticals affect our environment. Now the Faculty of Pharmacy has gathered several key organisations to build sustainable networks between a new generation of experts and their future employers.

In a laboratory at BMC stands a machine, about the size of a coffee maker but with the potential to fundamentally revolutionize healthcare. "By 2030, we expect to have 3D printers in private homes that will create drugs in accordance to each individual need," says Christel Bergström, Professor at the Department of Pharmacy.

In a new thesis, Vicky Barmpatsalou, PhD student at SweDeliver, introduces new in vitro models to cost-effectively identify which drug candidates are best suited for oral delivery and absorption in the large intestine.

“Everything was just super exciting,” says Alice Mankert, one of four middle school students from Uppsala Music Classes who in early February visited the Faculty of Pharmacy to learn more about frontline pharmaceutical research and also performed a much-lauded rock concert at the Pharmen Student union building.

Greta Hultqvist, Associate Professor and researcher in Protein drug design, receives a SEK 1 million grant from the Alzheimer's Foundation. "My goal is for my research to contribute to future treatments, and with new protein drugs we can make a big impact," says Greta Hultqvist.

Sweden Inhalation Network works to give a new generation of Swedish researchers access to leading expertise in pulmonary drug delivery. On Thursday 15 December, the network will present their operations and future initiatives at the SweDeliver and NextBioForm webinar series.

With funding from Horizon 2020, European consortium DRUGtrain is exploring if available drug molecules also have a therapeutic effect against the currently incurable kidney disease ADPKD. "Our goal is to identify how existing drugs will work against ADPKD and thereby contribute to new treatment options," says Alina Meyer, PhD student at Uppsala University.

Just a minute... Alexandra Teleki, researcher with a focus on pharmaceutical nanotechnology and Center co-Director of SweDeliver, that in January 2023 will join as the only non-American member of the Particle Technology Forum executive committee.

SweDeliver continues to receive top marks for its successful research program and building of new networks and expertise for future drug delivery. This time from main financier Vinnova, emphasizing, among many things, the efficient collaboration that characterizes the competence center.

Immunotherapy against tumors, Studies of how DNA damage generates cancer cells and Cell profiling in a robotic laboratory are in focus as the Swedish Cancer Society allocates SEK 7.2 million to three promising research projects at the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Thomas Dorlo, Lena Friberg and Margareta Hammarlund Udenaes at the Department of Pharmacy receive grants amounting to more than SEK 10 million in the Swedish Research Council's calls in Medicine and Health and Natural Sciences and Engineering in 2022.

The Faculty of Pharmacy is awarding honorary doctorates to Richard Bergström, former national vaccine coordinator, and Siew Chai, Associate Professor at Monash University. The promotion will take place in the Uppsala University Main Auditorium Friday 27 January, 2023.

In a new study, researchers at Uppsala University show how specially designed nanoparticles pave the way for oral delivery of biological drugs. "That the particles are absorbed in large quantities in the intestinal cells may facilitate medication for patients that have to inject their biological drug," says Patrik Lundquist, researcher in Drug Delivery.

During summer and autumn, Ires van der Zwaan, Marcus Wanselius, Ann-Christin Jacobsen and numerous other junior researchers at SweDeliver are publishing results that add valuable knowledge to the fields of drug delivery.

SweDeliver fulfills the high expectations and is well equipped to reach its goals, states the Competence Center's Scientific Advisory Board in a new evaluation of the ongoing collaboration between Uppsala University and 16 pharmaceutical companies.

With over 5 million euros in funding from Horizon Europe, new knowledge consortium GENEGUT will develop an RNA-based therapy against inflammatory disease in the gastrointestinal tract. "It is inspiring to take on a challenge with such extensive medical needs," says Per Artursson, Professor of Dosage Form Design.

Biological drugs have an increasingly important function in healthcare, but despite numerous years of research, physicians often lack effective methods to give them as tablets. In a current PhD thesis, Staffan Berg presents new knowledge about how permeation enhancers and correct release profile can increase the absorption of biological drugs in the blood when delivered orally.

“Receiving the BiotechBuilders Award 2022 provides valuable inspiration and hopefully contributes to consolidating Uppsala's and Biopharmaceutical’s places on the Swedish Life Science map,” states Sara Mangsbo, research director in immuno-oncology at Uppsala University.

“This is the best course I have taken during my entire PhD,” states a participant at the Uppsala Pharmacometrics Summer School, every August gathering doctoral students from all over the world. "This year's summer school is our biggest to date," says Mats Karlsson, Professor of Pharmacometrics.

The 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities is official: Uppsala University continues to climb in the field of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and now ranks 23rd in the world. "This is yet another acknowledgment that our determined work is fruitful," states Mathias Hallberg, Dean at the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Antibiotic resistance, Innovations and Design Thinking were on the agenda when the Faculty of Pharmacy welcomed young researchers from six European universities to the TIPAT Summer School 2022. "Organizing an event like this generates great values," says Iris Minichmayr at the Department of Pharmacy.

September 14-15, the conference Translating PKPD - (Retro)Perspectives brings the world of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics to Uppsala University. "It is inspiring to welcome such a significant part of our scientific field,” says Irena Loryan at the Faculty of Pharmacy.

The program for the 12th Pharmaceutical Profiling Symposium is now finalised and we are happy to announce the full list of confirmed speakers and their respective topics.

We would like to congratulate Madlen Hubert for being promoted to Associate Professor (docent)! Very well done and a hard-earned achievement!

The Valborg Jacobsons fond supports Madlen’s research with a grant of 200’000 SEK to develop human gut models for improved prediction of the in vivo performance of advanced oral medicines. Congratulations!