MIMS Clinical Research Fellows
In order to strengthen the clinical research and more closely incorporate preclinical and clinical research locally and nationally, MIMS decided in 2009 to initiate a program for Clinical Fellows. MIMS awards Clinical Research Fellowships to clinicians with a recent PhD and a strong research background.

Patient care in hospital.
The award comes with up to 12-month research time for the fellow and two years of a postdoctoral researcher to work in collaboration with a MIMS PI, or a PI at another Nordic Partnership node or EMBL, plus support for consumables. This meaningful link between clinical projects and basic research conducted at MIMS or its partners has proven to be successful for covering all translational aspects from bench to bedside. Every medical faculty in Sweden has been represented in the MIMS Clinical Research Fellowship Programme.
Since the establishment of the fellowship programme in 2009, MIMS has awarded 19 research fellowships to clinicians at university hospitals across Sweden.
Close to 80 research papers published by active MIMS Clinical Research Fellows during 2019-2024.
The call for MIMS Clinical Research Fellowships 2027 is now open. See all details here.
Active MIMS Clinical Research Fellows
Vanja Lundberg Wiraeus
Immunologist and a paediatric resident, Gothenburg
Anne Tuiskunen Bäck
Cardiology resident, Umeå
Alicia Lind
Resident physician in anesthesia and intensive care, and researcher, Umeå
Inga Rimkute
Resident, Sahlgrenska University Hospital and Gothenburg University
Sara Cajander
Senior consultant physician and adjunct associate professor, Örebro University Hospital and Örebro University
Victor Yman
Resident and research specialist, Södersjukhuset and Karolinska Institutet
Research description
Vanja Lundberg Wiraeus
Immunologist at Gothenburg University and a paediatric resident at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg, where she has been involved in treating patients with Inborn Errors of Immunity (IEI).
Her research focuses on setting up a translational workflow to validate genetic findings in children with IEI, a group of immune system disorders that can result in severe infections, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, allergies or even cancer. In her MIMS CRF project, she will work with Emma Haapaniemi at the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway, University of Oslo, and assess the effectiveness of the CRISPR correction technique as a personalized treatment for patients with IEI.
Anne Tuiskunen Bäck
Cardiology resident at Umeå University Hospital, and her current research focuses on the genetic characterization of virus isolates from patients to better understand the role of viruses in disease progression, adopting a strongly translational, bench-to-bedside perspective.
In her MIMS CRF project, she will particularly investigate the genetic diversity and pathogenesis of Nephropathia Epidemica (“sorkfeber” in Swedish), caused by the Puumala virus, and viral myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, together with former MIMS Clinical Research Fellow Anne-Marie Fors Connolly and MIMS Investigator Laura Caroll, both from Umeå University.
Alicia Lind
Resident physician in anesthesia and intensive care and a researcher at the Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Umeå University and Umeå University Hospital.
The goal of her research is to develop better methods for diagnosis and prognosis of life-threatening infections by studying how biomarkers in the metabolism change during acute infection and recovery. In her MIMS CRF project, she will work towards improving diagnostics and outcomes of post-COVID condition.
Inga Rimkuté
Clinical resident at Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg.
In her CRF project, she aims to develop effective countermeasures against human norovirus infection. At Umeå University, she will work on the project together with Marta Bally, associate professor at the Department of Clinical Microbiology.
Sara Cajander
Senior consultant physician at Örebro University Hospital and assistant professor at Örebro University.
Her research focus lies in infectious diseases with a focus on systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation. She will focus on longitudinal experiemental studies in human inflammatory disease in the CRF-supported project, together with Johan Normark, clinician and associate professor at Umeå University and Umeå University Hospital.
Victor Yman
Specialist physician at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Södersjukhuset, and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Global Health, at Institute Pasteur and at the Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm.
His MIMS CRF project aims at precision mapping virus-specific and cross-reactive antibodies for next-generation arbovirus diagnostics and surveillance tools, and will carry it out in collaboration with Mattias Forsell at the Department of Clinical Microbiology, Umeå University.
Read the announcement article on the award recipients of the MIMS Clinical Research Fellowship from the 2026 call here.
Former MIMS Clinical Research Fellows
Åsa Gylfe
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2011-2013
Topic: Strategies against antibiotic resistant bacterial infections: novel antibacterial compounds and rapid diadnosis with infection specific metabolites
Currently: Assistant professor/attending physician at Umeå University
Department of Clinical Microbiology
Alicia Edin
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2011-2013
Topic: Rapid diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia
Currently: Researcher/physician at Umeå University
Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences
Anders Johansson
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2011-2013
Topic: Molecular epidemiology and infection metabolomics
Currently: Professor/attending physician at Umeå University
Department of Clinical Microbiology
Johan Normark
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2011-2013
Topic: Malaria and bacterial concomitant infection
Currently: Associate professor/attending physician at Umeå University
Department of Clinical Microbiology
Peter Bergman
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2013-2015
Topic: Vitamin D and human immunity - experimental and clinical studies
Currently: Professor/senior physician at Karolinska Institute
Department of Laboratory Medicine
Arvid Edén
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2013-2015
Topic: Central nervous system viral "escape" and neuronal damage in HIV-1 infection
Currently: Researcher at University of Gothenburg
Department of Infectious Diseases
Josef Järhult
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2013-2015
Topic: Antimicrobial resistance in a One Health perspective
Currently: Professor at Uppsala University
Department of Medical Sciences
Fredrik Kahn
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2013-2015
Topic: Bacterial manipulation of host defence systems in sepsis
Currently: Researcher at Lund University
Infection Medicine
Sofia Nyström
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2013-2015
Topic: Immunomodulatory effects exerted by HIV-1 on dendritic cells and the induction of regulatory suppressor T cells
Currently: Adjunct associate professor, docent at Linköping University
Department of Biomedical Sciences
Lisa Påhlman
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2018-2022
Topic: Acute and chronic airway infections in cystic fibrosis
Currently: Researcher/physician/associate professor at Lund University
Infection Medicine
Piotr Nowak
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2018-2022
Topic: The studies of gut microbiome in HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections
Currently: Adjunct senior lecturer at Karolinska Institute
Department of Medicine
Anne-Marie Fors Connolly
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2020-2024
Topic: Mechanisms underlying cardiovascular complications caused by hemorrhagic fever virus infection
Currently: Assosciate professor at Umeå University
Department of Clinical Microbiology
Sara Gredmark Russ
MIMS Clinical Research Fellow 2020-2024
Topic: Identification of host cell factors required for tick-borne encephalitis virus infection and replication
Currently: Senior lecturer, docent at Karolinska Institutet
Department of Medicine
Latest update: 2026-11-02 Page editor: Nora Lehotai