Prestigious prize awarded to leading blood-vessel researcher

The motivation for the award states that “His research has been of essential significance for our understanding of how blood-vessel cells cooperate to achieve the functional balance required to maintain efficient blood circulation”.

“It was surprising, gratifying and flattering. I am grateful to the person or persons who nominated me and to the prize committee that selected me, in what I am convinced was extremely tough competition. I can name many researchers in the Nordic countries who deserve this prize more than I do, in my opinion”, says Christer Betsholtz.

Christer Betsholtz is a leading vascular researcher and has charted the communication between different types of cells in the blood-vessels and studied how they develop and form. Two types of cells particularly captured his interest: endothelial cells, which form the inner tube of our blood-vessels, and pericytes, a cell type included in all blood capillaries, which are the body’s smallest blood vessels.