MTC Today and Towards 2015
Translational Research
We have an excellent opportunity to strengthen our close interactions with the clinic (Inflammation, Oncology and Clinical Microbiology) in relation to the building of the new university hospital, NKS (Nya Karolinska Sjukhuset). We already have a strong platform as the unit of Clinical Microbiology at the Karolinska University Hospital Solna is part of MTC and through our vicinity and valuable interactions with the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI). These contacts and relations should be extended. Internationally there is a trend towards the development of Comprehensive Cancer Centers. This is also in progress at the Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet (KI) with the ambition to optimize translational research.
Undergraduate and Research Education
MTC has many engaged and dedicated teachers and we are continually developing our teaching. As an example, MTC was a pilot department for the MITC (Microbiology Information Technology Center) project, which introduced web-based support into undergraduate student education. Presently we are actively involved in the ongoing Bologna process that has changed the undergraduate training making it more uniform in Europe and opening up for increased international student exchange. In order to meet future international competition we need to develop ways to increase the status of teaching and establish well defined career merits for teaching activities to further promote excellence in the educational area.
Our PhD students form the heart of MTC and represent the future. It is therefore of fundamental importance to ensure a high quality research education by providing a creative environment with frontline research and by keeping a dynamic dialogue between the students and the faculty. It is also of outmost importance that we guide our new PhDs to find their future career paths within academia, in the clinic, in industry, in administration or elsewhere in society where an analytical mind is needed. Based on their profound education at KI, opportunities for professional activities are offered worldwide.
Technology Platforms
The infrastructure is of central importance when facing international competition. We will further develop interactions between our core facilities, especially our two Animal Houses, the Karolinska Institutet Visualization Facility (KIVIF) and the FACS facility in order to create a broad technology platform and obtain synergy effects. Collaborative efforts both within and outside the department in national and international applications will facilitate the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment and recruitment of personnel with expertise within specific areas such as visualization, mouse pathology and bioinformatics.
Network Activities
To realize these visions we need a strong economy with a continuous re-analysis of common costs, budget follow-up and a pro-active search for funding. An International Advisory Board will be engaged and a new vision, MTC 2015, will be presented as a living document on our home page. We will also identify a brother/sister department at one of the Ivy league universities in the United States or in Europe to complement the international contacts of individual researchers, as well as the ones that MTC formally has established with Southern China, Vietnam, Uganda, Singapore and elsewhere. Through such interactions, scientists as well as technical and administrative staff will significantly enrich and broaden their personal and professional experiences. In addition, provision of web-based information is of ever increasing importance as a tool in our daily work and requires the continuous development of our home page.
The power and greatest asset of MTC is everyone working at the department. MTC has through the ambition and strong efforts from previous chairmen Ingemar Ernberg, Klas Kärre and Mats Wahlgren a tradition that is built on creativity, diversity and equality. It is important that we actively foster this spirit also in the future.
Marie arsenian Henriksson
Head of Department
