Jan-Åke Gustafsson

Jan-Åke Gustafsson (born 1943, Sweden) is a Swedish scientist and professor in Biology, Biochemistry and Medical Nutrition. When he decided to move to Houston, Texas, USA, in 2008, the State of Texas decided to give a major US $5.5 million research grant to the University of Houston, enabling the establishment of the ''Center of Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling'' under the leadership of Jan-Åke Gustafsson. The grant was announced at a February 5, 2009, press conference by Rick Perry, Governor of Texas and running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election.

Recruiting top international scientists, world-leaders in their respective field, and providing them with grants to enable them to establish top scientific institutions in Texas, is part of the government of the State of Texas' vision to establish top-tier research and educational institutions in the state, institutions that will be able to rival the top institutions on the American East and West Coasts. The importance of research and scientific progress to the senior levels of the Texas government was illustrated by personal interest that governor Rick Perry took in the recruitment of professor Gustafsson and the establishment of the center.

Jan-Åke Gustafsson holds two parallel professorships: Robert A. Welch Professor of Biology and Biochemistry (80%) at the University of Houston's Department of Biology and Biochemistry, as well as Professor of Medical Nutrition (20%) at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Gustafsson is one of Europe's leading scientists in the fields of medicine and natural science.

Jan-Åke Gustafsson has received numerous international and national scientific awards, honorary doctor- and professorships, e.g. Honorary professor of the Beijing University in Beijing, People's Republic of China; Honorary doctor of the University of Chongqing, Chongqing, PRC; Honorary Doctor of the University of Milan, Milan, Italy; the Lorenzini Foundation's Gold Medal, Lorenzini Foundation, Milan, Italy and the Nordic Fernström Prize, often referred to as the ''"Little Nobel Prize"'', the Fernström Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark.

He is one of the scientists in Sweden that receives the largest annual research and science grants, i.e. government- and private funding, for his research projects.

Gustafsson is most well known for his longstanding accomplishments in the field of nuclear receptors, including his discovery of the previously unknown estrogen receptor beta. His work at the University of Houston is focused on establishing academic and industry collaborations with the goal of finding new treatments for diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Jan-Åke Gustafsson received his PhD from the Karolinska institutet in 1968, followed by an MD from the same university in 1971. Provided by Wikipedia