Administrators at Sweden's premier medical university, the Karolinska Institute, announced today (March 2nd) that they've fired the institution's dean of research for exerting "undue influence" over the allocation of funds to top Karolinska professors.

Image: Camilla Svensk

Clinical pathologist Karl Tryggvason reportedly tried to influence the decisions of an independent panel regarding which researchers at the Karolinska Institute should receive extra funding from the university at the end of last year. Karolinska Institute President Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson decided to investigate Tryggvason, who has been at the university since 1995, after receiving letters questioning the selection process from researchers vying for the funds.

The investigation determined that Tryggvason broke the institute's ethics rules by sending a note from his private email address suggesting professors he felt deserved funding to the head of the independent selection committee tasked with awarding the money.

"It is unacceptable for a senior member of our university to act in this way," Wallberg-Henriksson said in a statement from the university. "I take such unethical conduct very, very seriously and have therefore dismissed Karl Tryggvason from the office of Dean of Research with immediate effect."

According to the Karolinska Institute, the investigation is on-going and "additional action may be necessary."

Tryggvason's research group focuses on basement membranes -- specifically, their structure, biology and the diseases they cause. He'll stay on to continue that work in his Karolinska lab, according to a spokesperson from the university.


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