Charlotta Enerbäck

High level shopping. Charlotta Enerbäck, a psoriasis researcher, is enthusiastic, to say the least, about her new job, a donation-funded senior lectureship at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Linköpings University. She is currently looking at tenders to build a brand new lab for psoriasis research and is thrilled to have discovered that she can push prices down a fair amount. This means more money for research. And two graduate students are already ready to be part of the research team she will lead.

Charlotta Enerbäck is a dermatologist and clinical geneticist. She previously worked at Sahlgrenska in Gothenburg and had for some time felt the need for change when she saw a job advert from LiU.

 “What a fantastic position! I am really looking forward to a calm working environment and to be able to do my research with more secure conditions”, she says.

The move has also gone smoothly. Her husband is able to continue his work as a consultant from Linköping, there was a nice house for sale near Tinnerbäcken and the children, aged five and eight, quickly got places at the Atlas School.

“I am honestly impressed with how much help we’ve received, everywhere have people been pleasant and professional. I doubt that those moving to Gothenburg get the same treatment.”

Perhaps these are the advantages of a small town. Charlotta, sees many, especially the short distances, swapping stationary traffic jams on the way to work for a walk. A freer and safer environment for the children compared to the big city.

And she intends to show the family how beautiful the plain is towards Vreta Kloster. Charlotta actually grew up in Linköping, her father Lennart Enerbäck worked as a pathologist at the then regional hospital.

“But I mostly remember the mud in Hjulsbro, it was newly built in the 70's and quite boring for us children. I now look forward to living in a more central location”, she says.

"I look forward to...” – Charlotta says this a lot. There is a large group of people who are also looking forward to her move to LiU - or rather, to reaping the benefit from new research on psoriasis.

On of the areas the research will focus on is a protein, psoriasin, which Charlotta did research on before. There are large quantities of psoriasin in psoriasis affected skin and this causes rapid cell division, inflammation and the formation of new blood vessels. Not unlike the development of cancer - and there are also links to breast cancer, another of Charlotta’s research topics.

“We hope, for example, to find a psoriasin inhibitor that can be used in pharmaceutical products. Today’s psoriasis care is mainly focused on alleviating symptoms”, she says.

But the research lab is not the only place of work for Charlotta Enebäck.

“I am also going to work as dermatologist at the University Hospital”

Text & photo: Gunilla Pravitz
Translation: Therese Winder