Skandia's Lennart Levi Prize
The Skandia Lennart Levi Prize was founded in 2010 to mark Lennart Levi's 80th birthday and will be awarded annually for a period of five years. Candidates must be internationally outstanding researchers active in Sweden or elsewhere. Prize winners are selected by a panel comprising professors from Karolinska Institutet. The prize of SEK 100,000 will be awarded at Karolinska Institutet's installation ceremony.
Prize winner 2012 - Thomas Helleday
Thomas Helleday was the first to scientifically demonstrate the concept called "synthetic lethality" for treating cancer. He proved that PARP inhibitors can selectively kill certain cancer cells without damaging surrounding healthy cells, which was a major breakthrough for the clinical treatment of mutated breast and ovarian cancers. Synthetic lethality can also be used to devise strategies to attack cancer.
