About Us

History

September 8th 2005 the grand opening of “The Network on Mechanisms and Biomedical Implications of Cell Death” or simply the “Cell Death Network” where Professor Sten Orrenius presented his view of “Cell Death - past, present and future”. The initiative was established by four young researchers; Dr Linn Hjortsberg, Dr Bertrand Joseph, Dr Theocharis Panaretakis and Dr Helene Stridh at the Karolinska Institute in order to promote collaboration and research within the cell death field.


Aims

The Cell Death Network was created in order to:


  1. Facilitate and improve high-quality cell death research at KI
  2. Advance multidisciplinary efforts in research on cell death
  3. Offer graduate students a high-quality education within the cell death field
  4. Promote collaboration with cell death researchers in Sweden and abroad

To date, the Cell Death Network has organized 17 seminars by top researchers in the field, including;


  • Prof. Sten Orrenius, IMM, Karolinska Institutet: Past, present and future of cell death. 8th September 2005, KI Campus Solna.
  • Prof. Jiri Bartek, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark: Relationship between regulators of cell cycle and cell death. 23rd March 2006, KI Solna Campus.
  • Prof. Jurg Tschopp, University of Lausanne, Switzerland: Caspases and their role in tumorigenesis. 26th October 2006, Karolinska University Hospital.
  • Prof. Gerard I. Evan, UCFF Cancer Center, California, USA: Apoptosis in tumor suppression - the good, the bad and the ugly. 14th December 2006, Nobel Forum.
  • Prof. Yuri Lazebnick, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA: Cell fusion as a link between viruses and cancer. 3rd October 2007 , KI Solna Campus.
  • Prof. David C.S. Huang, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia: The Bcl-2 life-death switch. 1st November 2007, KI Solna Campus.
  • A full day conference ”The 1st Cell Death Network Mini-Symposium at Nobel Forum” 14th 2008, KI Solna Campus

The Board

At present, the network consists of a working group (dealing with practical and organizational matters) and a reference group, with prominent cell death researchers at KI, who have an important supportive function.


Advisor

  • Prof. Sten Orrenius Institute of Environmental Medicine

Working group

  • Director - Docent Bertrand Joseph, Department of Oncology and Pathology
  • Treasurer - Docent Theocharis Panaretakis, Department of Oncology and Pathology
  • Secretary - Dr Linn Hjortsberg, Department of Oncology and Pathology
  • Dr Jeremy Lambert, Department of Oncology and Pathology
  • Dr Eva Buentke, Department of Oncology and Pathology

Reference group

  • Docent Maria Ankarcrona KASPAC, Neurotec, Novum
  • Professor Dan Grandér, Department of Oncology and Pathology
  • Docent Alf Grandien, Department of Medicine (HS)
  • Professor Marie Henriksson, Microbiology and Tumor Biology center
  • Docent Ola Hermansson, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
  • Professor Stig Linder, Department of Oncology and Pathology
  • Docent Galina Selivanova, Microbiology and Tumor Biology center
  • Professor Boris Zhivotovsky, Institute of Environmental Medicine

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