Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Honorary Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh is a world-renowned comparative genomics researcher, specialising in mammalian genetics. She has led mapping and sequencing projects of over 30 different vertebrate genomes, including important domestic animals such as horse and dog.

Today, she manages a large, international project that aims to sequence the genomes of more than 200 mammals. She is professor of comparative genomics at Uppsala University since 2009 and a distinguished professor at the Swedish Research Council. She is also a scientific director at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in the US.

From 2010 to 2016, she held high posts at the SciLife Lab in Uppsala. She has published more than 180 scientific articles, of which 35 in highly ranked journals. She was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2012.

Lindblad-Toh has unique talents, and her research findings have, to a great extent, been translated into practical applications, both within veterinary and human healthcare. She has carried out a number of pioneering initiatives relating to domestic animal genetics; among other things, she has identified several mutations that cause hereditary diseases in dogs and horses.

She has had close contact with SLU researchers since 2005. This collaboration has deepened, and today there is very successful collaboration between the universities within canine research. Dogs are excellent model animals in studies concerning hereditary diseases that also affect humans, because dogs and people have a similar gene content, get the same diseases and share the same living environments.

By mapping genes and mutations of relevance for a number of diseases such as auto-immune diseases, neurological diseases and cancer, the chances of finding new ways to delay and cure them, both in animals and humans, are increased.

Press photo

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• Kerstin Lindblad-Toh. Photo: Magnus Bergström, Wallenbergsstiftelsen