Svenja Stöven

After I moved to Sweden in 1997 and until I started at the European CBRNE centre in 2011 I have been performing research in the field of innate immunity and host-pathogen interactions using the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster as modell organism. My first affiliation was with the group of Dan Hultmark’s at Stockholm University, who then moved to the Umeå Centre for Molecular Pathogenesis (later merged with the Department of Molecular Biology) at Umeå University. Already during that period I got involved with what can be called science organisation. In my case that meant working for a couple of years as program director of the Biomedical Research School. This engagement was followed by a period at the Department of Clinical Microbiology, where I in collaboration with the team of Anders Sjöstedt’s focused my research on tularemia and the host-pathogen interactions connected with this infectious disease. In parallel, I was manager of the group’s international, USA-funded project for the development of a tularemia vaccine.

With this background and given that a more dangerous type of tularemia than the one we know from Sweden is considered a potential biological weapon, the move to the European CBRNE Centre felt like a natural next step in my career. Since then I have been working in different functions in both long term projects and shorter assignments. At the same time I have extended my ”B”-horizon to include the other letters in ”CBRNE” as well as preparedness planning in general. The journey from curiosity-driven basic scientific research towards applied research and development for improved societal security and crisis management has been - and is - both exciting and educational.

Academic titles:

Dr. rer. nat. (Free University Berlin 1994)

Associate Professor in Molecular Biology (Umeå University 2007)