The KTH Great Prize 2006 awarded to Mathias Uhlén
Mathias Uhlén, Professor of Microbiology at KTH and a pioneer within his field, will be awarded KTH's Major Prize this year. Mathias Uhlén will be receiving the prize for his work on demonstrating the power of entrepreneurship based on technological research.
“With unbroken optimism Mathias Uhlén is currently in charge of Sweden's largest research project, Human Proteome Resource, whose results we have only seen the beginning of, but which will promote progress in areas that will prove to be of great societal benefit. Mathias embodies the symbol of an entrepreneur in the form of a researcher. As such, he is the most inspiring role model imaginable,” writes KTH in its motivation for the award.
Mathias Uhlén is one of the key people in the field of biotechnology in Sweden today and has a wide network of researchers, entrepreneurs and politicians. He has around seventy patents in the area and has been involved in the founding of several new biotech companies such as Biotage AB, Affibody, and most recently Atlas Antibodies AB.
Currently, Mathias Uhlén is in charge of the HPR project (Human Proteome Resource), which has attracted a lot of attention and whose aim is to map out and identifying human proteins. The project on the one hand builds up a reagent bank for the different proteins, and on the other, a data-driven picture atlas as to where they are in the cells.
The protein atlas can be used for continued basic research, but it can also be used to diagnose diseases and to produce new and more effective drugs. The project is financed with a record grant totalling SEK 450 million from the Wallenberg Foundation and is considered to be the world's largest within protein research.