The Swedish government has made a $600,000 three-year commitment to support the exchange of scientists between Umea University in northern Sweden and the School of Medicine. It is the first of several grants that will increase collaboration between Swedish universities and major institutions in other countries.
The exchange program with Washington University grew out of a dialogue among Thomas Olivecrona, M.D., dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Umea; William A. Peck, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of Washington University's School of Medicine; and Jeffrey I. Gordon, M.D., Alumni Professor and head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, director of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and professor of medicine.
"This program provides a wonderful mechanism to strengthen the scientific relationships between our two institutions," Peck said.
Starting in January, the exchange program will allow Swedish researchers to complete two-year postdoctoral fellowships in the biomedical sciences at the School of Medicine.
"This is an opportunity for outstanding young scientists to expand their studies at a critical stage in their careers," said Scott J. Hultgren, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular microbiology and Washington University's coordinator of the exchange program.
The program also will support a limited number of travel fellowships for faculty members at both institutions.
The Umea coordinator is Charles Sentman, Ph.D., a member of Umea's Center for Molecular Pathogenesis. From 1990 to 1992, Sentman was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Stanley J. Korsmeyer, M.D., professor of medicine and of pathology at Washington University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Although the program grew out of interactions between faculty from both institutions who are interested in microbial pathogenesis, it is designed to extend beyond this area of science. Faculty participants in all 11 interdepartmental programs sponsored by the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences are eligible to serve as mentors for postdoctoral fellows from Umea.
Applicants for postdoctoral fellowships will be responsible for initiating contacts with potential labs at the School of Medicine. Hultgren will facilitate the process. He can be reached for further information by phone (362-6772) or e-mail (hultgren@borcim.wustl.edu).
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