Sara Bjursten and Anna Wenger receive the Assar Gabrielsson Award 2024
The Assar Gabrielsson Foundation has named Anna Wenger as the winner in the basic science research category and Sara Bjursten as the winner in the clinical research category. The winners will each be awarded SEK 100,000 as an extra research grant at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.
Sara Bjursten receives the award in the clinical research category for clinically important and well-executed research on immunotherapy in cancer patients. The studies provide new insights into central nervous system side effects, especially in terms of T cells and blood biomarkers.
Anna Wenger is awarded the prize in the basic science category for her thesis on malignant gliomas in children and adults. The studies provide new insights into epigenetic differences and cancer stem cells in different types of glioma.
“Sara Bjursten’s results may lead to new strategies for early detection of side effects in patients receiving immunotherapy, while the results from Anna Wenger’s thesis may be of great benefit for the development of better diagnostics and choice of treatment for patients with glioma,” says Eva Forssell-Aronsson, Professor at the University of Gothenburg and executive member of the Assar Gabrielsson Foundation.
Clear benefits for patients
Since defending her PhD thesis in 2023, Sara Bjursten has continued to study severe side effects of immunotherapy from an immunological perspective. Together with her former supervisor, Max Levin, she is conducting the BioMe study, with the plan to convert the discoveries into a clinical study.
“I feel that my research has a clear benefit for patients, which is of course the goal and driving force of all cancer research. When we met a patient with encephalitis, which is a very serious side effect, we discovered gaps in our knowledge of diagnosis, treatment and what happens in the immune system. We have been able to trace this back to other patients who suffered the same severe side effect,” comments Sara Bjursten.
Important clinical link
In her thesis, Anna Wenger studied cancer stem cells and how the methylation pattern differs within brain tumors and how it affects diagnosis. The thesis includes five sub-studies with broad scope, from cell culture and animal experiments to analysis of methylation data.
“The most important thing for me is that the thesis has a clinical connection, and that it can hopefully contribute to improved diagnostics and treatment for children and adults with brain tumors,” says Anna Wenger.
Anna Wenger is currently a Wenner-Gren postdoc at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in England, where she is using new sequencing methods to study DNA in tumors and adjacent healthy tissue to understand how cancer forms in children.
The award will be presented at a ceremony in the Pathology Lecture Hall at Sahlgrenska University Hospital on Tuesday, June 4th, from 12:00 to 3:00 PM.