Torbjörn Gräslund

The number of biological pharmaceuticals and molecular diagnosis instruments based on designed proteins has increased explosively in recent years. This has led to new, customised and effective treatments for a number of different diseases, such as breast cancer, leukaemia, Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Today's research and development within medical protein technology aims to discover drugs for numerous other diseases. This concerns diseases for which no sufficiently effective treatment exists, or for which there is no treatment at all today.

Torbjörn Gräslund's research group is investigating how protein-based molecules can be designed for medical applications. The research has e.g. contributed to the development of protein-based molecules for the diagnosis of breast and ovarian cancer, which are currently being tested on patients. Gräslund's research group is also investigating principles for the design of targeted toxins, which search out cancer tumours and eliminate them, with minimum impact on the patient's healthy tissue. The aim is to design molecules that can become the cancer drugs of the future.