Óscar Fernandez-Capetillo, professor of cancer therapy at Karolinska Institutet since 2015 and a SciLifeLab faculty member, has been awarded the Erik K Fernström prize for his pioneering research on how DNA damage can lead to cancer and ageing.

Óscar Fernandez-Capetillo‘s research focuses on replicative stress and replicative damage to DNA, which causes ageing, as well as cancer. His research interest lies in what brings about the replicative stress and how cells discover and repair the resulting damage, a process in which the enzyme ATR kinase plays a key role. He has demonstrated that replicative stress accelerates ageing in mammals, and that inhibitors of ATR are future cancer drug candidates. His group at Karolinska Institutet is also working on developing a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

About the Erik K Fernström prize
The Eric K. Fernström Foundation was established in 1978 and annually awards a Nordic prize and six prizes to young and particularly promising researchers who have made outstanding contributions to medical science. Each medical faculty of the country elects its prize-winner.