Munich / Stockholm – Karolinska Institutet, one of the world´s leading medical universities selecting the Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology or Medicine every year, is now a co-owner of INFRAFRONTIER GmbH. In a company agreement signed a week ago, Sweden´s largest academic research and education institute for Medicine has become the sixth scientific institution with full voting power in the coordination unit of the INFRAFRONTIER Research Infrastructure. The six shareholders of INFRAFRONTIER GmbH are Helmholtz Zentrum München (Germany), PHENOMIN-ICS in Strasbourg (France), Institute of Molecular Genetics IMG in Prague (Czech Republic), BSRC Alexander Fleming in Athens (Greece), University of Oulu (Finland) – and now Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (Sweden).
Karolinska Institutet becomes the sixth shareholder of INFRAFRONTIER GmbH
By adding Karolinska to its shareholder circle, INFRAFRONTIER has executed an important change in its decision-making structure that has been long planned. Karolinska Institute (KI) is one of the founding members of the INFRAFRONTIER consortium and the Swedish national node for the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA).
Long tradition of mouse model research
The generation, breeding, phenotyping and archiving of genetically modified mice is a key component of research across Karolinska´s 22 departments. The Stockholm-based university with its 6,000 FTE students has a long tradition in gnotobiotic mouse models. It has recently made large investments in state-of-the-art animal facilities – in modern imaging modalities as well as in new phenotyping equipment (ABFC). A core facility for morphological phenotype analysis (FENO) has been in operation for several years now.
Production and archiving of mouse strains is conducted by KIMM – the Karolinska Institutet Mouse Model unit providing a comprehensive set of genome editing and transgenic technologies. Karolinska also plays an important role in advancing technologies for single cell transcriptomic profiling and has significantly contributed to unraveling the molecular blueprints of various organs and developmental stages in the mouse.
Prof. Martin Hrabě de Angelis, scientific director of INFRAFRONTIER, welcomes the new GmbH member: “We are happy to have succeeded in fully integrating Karolinska Institute in the INFRAFRONTIER GmbH family. The participation of such an excellent, worldwide acknowledged institution in our decision making body enhances the scientific competence and the overall strength of our research infrastructure.”
Prof. Urban Lendahl, professor for genetics at KI, says: “Karolinska Institute is honoured and happy to now become a full partner of INFRAFRONTIER GmbH. Over the years, INFRAFRONTIER has conducted important and excellent work in the field of mouse functional genomics and significantly contributed to shaping the European Research Area in life sciences”.