Tilen Tršelič is the winner of Cilla Weigelt Award 2025
CMMer Tilen Tršelič is awarded with the Cilla Weigelt 2025 Award for his research on Sjögren’s disease. The prize is SEK 60 000.
Sjögren’s disease, is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system attacks the glands responsible for producing moisture in the body, such as the tear and salivary glands. Sjögren’s disease is a relatively common autoimmune disease, affecting an estimated 0.1% to 1% of the global population. It occurs predominantly in women, who develop it about 9 to 10 times more frequently than men.
Tilen Tršelič is a PhD student in Marie Wahren Herlenius CMM Group and at the Division of Rheumatology, Dept of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and in his main project he studied how a specific gene, DIORA1, contributes to autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren’s disesase.
The Cilla Weigelt award aims to encourage and support PhD students investigating molecular mechanisms of relevance to rare and undertreated diseases. An award ceremony/seminar at Chiesi Global Rare Diseases R&D offices on Campus Solna is planned later this fall.
“Receiving the Cilla Weigelt Award is a true honour. It is incredibly meaningful to see our work on the molecular mechanisms of autoimmune diseases recognized in this way. I also want to stress that this award is not only a reflection of my own efforts but also of the many mentors, collaborators, and colleagues who have supported and inspired me throughout my PhD so far. Importantly, the award will give me the chance to build new collaborations and explore fresh ideas for the next phase of my research – opportunities that will likely shape my development as a scientist. In short, it is both a recognition of the journey so far and a catalyst for what comes next” says Tilen Tršelič.
His research is focused on the molecular and cellular function of an uncharacterized gene named family of sequence similarity 167 member A (FAM167A). FAM167A has been linked to Sjögren’s disease in genetic association studies and has homology with FAM167B. Both genes encode proteins of unknown functions and have been given the names Disordered autoimmunity 1 and 2 (DIORA1 and 2), respectively.
Using proximity proteomics, Tilen identified MRCKA and MRCK kinases as interaction partners of DIORA1. He demonstrated that DIORA1 binds to the kinase inhibitory motif (KIM) of MRCK kinases, suggesting a role in regulating their activity. In DIORA1 knock-down cell lines, phosphorylation of MRCK substrates was reduced, leading to dysregulated cell motility. This work has led to a first-author publication accepted in PNAS.
Further studies by Tilen revealed that several other proteins may be involved in the same signaling network as DIORA1. Together, these proteins form a previously unrecognized regulatory system that likely plays an important role in controlling cell motility and may hold potential as future drug targets.
About Cilla Weigelt:
Cecilia “Cilla” Weigelt (born Gidlöf) obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Immunology from Uppsala University in 1998. In 2000, she joined the Danish-Swedish biotechnology company HemeBiotech as the Head of Cell Biology. She remained with the company (later renamed to Zymenex, which was subsequently acquired by Chiesi Group in 2013) throughout her career. During this time, she made significant contributions to several drug discovery and development projects focused on the treatment of rare diseases. Cilla always supported younger researchers and was driven by the goal of helping patients who lacked adequate treatment for devastating illnesses. Cilla Weigelt passed away in 2021 at the age of 51 after living with breast cancer for ten years.
About the Cecilia Weigelt Prize:
The Cilla Weigelt Prize has been established by Chiesi (her employer), the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), as well as by friends and family in her memory to support and inspire young doctoral students and to honor her legacy. The prize is administered by the Center for Molecular Medicine Foundation (CMM) at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital. Additional contributions to the prize have been made by Aled Edwards (Toronto, Canada), Johan Weigelt (Stockholm), and MRCS AB (Michael Sundström, Stockholm).