The Distinguished Professor programme is awarded to at least 2 scientists every second year between 2019-2029 by the Swedish Research Council. It was created to allow the most prominent researchers to conduct long-term, ground-breaking research which has great potential for achieving scientific breakthroughs. On top of the honor, the grant comes with 50 million SEK distributed over 10 years, and is intended to enable the establishment of a major research environment of the highest quality around a leading researcher.

Perhaps needless to say, Prof. Malin Parmar is thrilled to have been appointed one of this year's three Distinguished Professorships:

"It is of course a great honour to be awarded Distinguished Professor. It would not have been possible without my previous and present group members, the strong neuroscience research environment here in Lund as well as all my colleagues and collaborators here and all over the world."

Prof. Parmar's research focus lies in developing new, cell-based therapies for Parkinson's disease. The main aim within the period of the grant is to be able to use stem cell-based therapy to treat patients with healthy versions of their own cells. On the question of how important this grant is to her, she says:

"This means a lot to me and my research. It provides economic stability and independence, which allows me to put my main focus on elevating and developing our research and research environment. In turn that spins off into positive energy and creativity, which is the starting point of all novel research."

We congratulate and wish the Distinguished Professor Malin Parmar the best of luck for the future and look forward to new exciting research from her group.