Knut Steffensen Becomes New Director of Karolinska ATMP Centre
The Karolinska ATMP Centre is a joint venture between Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital tasked with consolidating all ATMP operations based on cells, genes or tissues to enhance the development and implementation of cell, gene and tissue therapies.
“I’m very much looking forward to working with the units at KI and the hospital that are at the forefront of the ATMP field,” says Knut Steffensen.
“With my experience of the pharmaceutical industry and KI, I hope that we’ll continue to create conditions for the research and development of advance therapy medicines. Ultimately, the motivation is that subsequent implementation by doctors will bring great patient benefit," says Knut.
Knut Steffensen holds a PhD in molecular medicine and was previously the Nordic Medical Lead in Cell Therapy at Kite-Gilead. He has many years’ experiences of the pharmaceutical industry and has been a docent at Karolinska Institutet.
“We already have world-leading competence at Karolinska Institutet and the university hospital researching, developing or administering cell, gene and tissue therapies,” says Mathias Axelsson, Head of Medical Diagnostics at Karolinska University Hospital.
He adds:
“However, developments are moving fast and to really provide patient benefit we need to quickly step up our collaboration even more, and Knut Steffensen’s industry experience will clearly make a valuable contribution to the Karolinska ATMP Centre."
The foundations for the centre were laid back in 1975 with the Medical Unit for Cell Therapy and Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation. The centre now has high ambitions to forge stronger, closer ties with public sector actors and pharmaceutical companies.
“Knut Steffensen has exactly the right background and experience to lead the Karolinska ATMP Centre,” says Matti Sällberg, Dean of Karolinska Institutet South and the centre’s acting Director.
“He has solid experience of basic research at molecular level and practical knowledge of the very latest ATMP drugs from the industry. This gives him a unique overall picture of what’s required for taking discoveries in basic research all the way to new cell and gene therapy-based drugs. I extend a warm welcome to Knut to these new and exciting challenges at the Karolinska ATMP Centre," says Matti.
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ATMP stands for för Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products
Somatic cell therapies are defined as containing cells that have been substantially processed so that their properties, function or structured have been changed and that are administered in order to treat, prevent or diagnose a disease through their effect.
Gene therapies are defined as containing DNA, RNA or other nucleic acid sequence the purpose of which is to regulate, repair, replace, add or remove a gene sequence, and as being effective on account of this genetic material or its product.
Tissue technical products are defined as containing processed tissue or cells for the formation, repair or replacement of human tissue.
Combination drugs that contain advanced therapy medicinal products also contain medicotehnical products (e.g. matrix or support structures).
Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital collaborate to create excellent conditions for education, research and development in the healthcare field. By working closely together we can make better use of our resources in the interests of improving human health.