Cecilia Tullberg, WP leader in ScanOats, is awarded the prize for young researchers from Kåre Larsson och Gunnar Sandbergs forskningsstiftelse – Camurus Lipid Research Foundation, for her scientific achievements.
Dr. Cecilia Tullberg (ScanOats and Division of Biotechnology, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Sweden) receives the prize for younger scientists for her work on lipids in biological matrixes, including characterization of composition, structure and emulsifying properties as well as means to modify the lipids by applying innovative green biotechnological tools and smart processing strategies. Her work has been focused on sustainable raw materials with food, pharmaceutical and consumer product applications in mind.
Since 2018, the foundation has every year, with exception of a break due to the pandemic, given out two classes of prizes every year, the main prize, and the prize to two younger researchers. The main prize is awarded to an internationally leading scientist who has provided outstanding contributions to the scientific progress and understanding of complex lipid systems, their structures, and biological roles or life science applications.
The Foundation has decided that the main prize for 2024 will be given to Professor Bhanu P. Jena (Wayne State University, School of Medicine, MI, USA) for his discovery of porosomes, which are cup-shaped structures in the cell membrane that allow secretory vesicles to dock to the membrane and transport material to the cell.
The second young scientist awarded 2024 is Dr Jennifer Gilbert (Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden) for her work on dispersion of lipid liquid crystalline phases for the delivery of a range of different bioactive molecules with focus on enzymes and nucleic acids.
Camurus Lipid Research Foundation, CLRF, was founded by Professor Kåre Larsson (1937-2018), Lund University and Dr.h.c. Gunnar Sandberg (1923-2007), GS Development, Malmö. Kåre Larsson was a world-leading expert on lipid structure and assembly with seminal work on fat crystallization and cubic liquid crystalline lipid phases. Gunnar Sandberg was a Swedish entrepreneur, who founded Electro-Sandberg, a major electric installation company in southern Sweden, and he later became involved in many forward looking and innovative companies. Their collaboration began in the late 1980’s, with Kåre Larsson’s pioneering scientific discovery of cubic lipid liquid crystalline nanoparticles – Cubosomes, which applications were to be commercialized by Camurus AB, today a listed company.
Kåre Larsson och Gunnar Sandbergs forskningsstiftelse -Camurus Lipid Research Foundation1 (CLRF, www.clrf.se ) has since it was founded 1997, supported research within the lipid area, i.e. their structure, self-assembly and their role as fundamental building block in cells, as well as their physiological importance and how they can be used to provide new efficient vehicles for drug delivery.
Text. Professor Tommy Nylander, Member of the Board CLRF