How does it feel to receive Bengt Falck's award?
- When I arrived in Lund in the early 1990s, Bengt Falck was an active scientist in the same histology department where I began my scientific career in Sweden. He has worked a lot with my old supervisor Olle Lindvall, where they used the well-known Falck-Hillarp method, and I have had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times. Receiving the Bengt Falck Prize in Neuroscience 30 years later is a great honor and makes me feel that what I have done during all these years actually has value.
You have shown in animal models that it is possible to repair a brain that has suffered a stroke. What will be the next steps in this research?
- It will be to further develop this strategy to clarify the mechanism for how transplanted nerve cells integrate into the stroke-damaged neural network, and to optimize the strategy so that it can reach its maximum effect.
What is the likelyhood that your results can be implemented in the clinic on patients who have suffered a stroke?
-The data we obtained by transplanting human neurons into rat models show that similar integrations can occur in human brain tissue obtained after neurosurgical procedures. Because of this, our data lays a strong foundation for the method to be used on human brains as well.
If so, when do you think it would be possible?
- We will first need to evaluate the safety and opportunities to improve the methodology. The next step will be to produce these cells under clinically approved conditions, so it will take several years.
International leader in the field
The motivation for choosing this year's laureate is: “Zaal Kokaia's research group has been the first in the world to show that transplanted human stem cell-derived nerve cells can be built morphologically and functionally into the stroke-damaged brain's nerve circuits, respond to sensory stimuli and participate in the regulation of motor function… ” “…Prof. Kokaia's work has clear clinical implications and suggests that transplantation of stem cell-derived nerve cells could be developed into a new therapeutic strategy to regain function after stroke in humans. Zaal Kokaia is without a doubt a pioneer and international leader in this field of research ”.
Bengt Falck's prize in Neuroscience
Bengt Falck is Professor Emeritus of Histology at Lund University and one of the Faculty of Medicine's internationally renowned researchers. Together with Nils-Åke Hillarp, he developed a method for detecting important neurotransmitters in nerve cells. The research was published in 1962 and was richly cited in medical and scientific journals. The prize money of SEK 15,000 comes from "Hanna and Elsa Larsson's fund for medical research".