Presentation of KLM’s Career Prize for outstanding research Prize winners: Julie Elisabeth Heggelund and Rasmus Iversen
Julie Elisabeth Heggelund and Rasmus Iversen, both from the Department of Immunology at the Division for Laboratory Medicine (KLM), were recently awarded KLM's Career Prize for their outstanding early career research work. This award goes to researchers in the category of temporary employees, and was distributed for the first time in 2024. The evaluation committee consisted of three researchers from different KLM departments. The prize, amounting to 75.000 NOK, must be used to further research at OUS. Emma Lång, head of KLM TempAware, led the award ceremony together with her colleagues in the group, who represent the seven departments in KLM.
Text: Emma Lång
We are pleased to announce that Julie Elisabeth Heggelund from the Department of Immunology and Rasmus Iversen from the Department of Immunology at the Division for Laboratory Medicine (KLM) were recently honored for their outstanding research work during an award ceremony. The ceremony took place on Friday the 5th of September in Seminar room 3 at Oslo University Hospital (Rikshospitalet, OUH). Emma Lång, head of KLM TempAware, led the award ceremony together with her colleagues in the group, who represent the seven departments in KLM.
Julie Elisabeth Heggelund has made significant contributions to research on gluten-sensitive disorders, particularly through structural and mechanistic studies employing advanced techniques such as X-ray crystallography. She earned her PhD in chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, in June 2015 and currently holds a research position at the Department of Immunology, OUH. As a researcher at KLM and during international collaborations, she has published two first-author articles in Nature Communications (2023 and 2025). Both studies investigate the intricate relationship between autoantibodies and antigen presentation in gluten-sensitive disorders. These publications highlight her expertise as a scientist and underscore her role in advancing the understanding of the immunological mechanisms underlying gluten sensitivity and related autoimmune conditions. Her work holds promise for the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Heggelund is the recipient of an RCN FRIPRO mobility fellowship and has held visiting researcher positions at the University of Leeds and at Stanford University.
Rasmus Iversen is a researcher at the Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine (OUH). He earned his PhD at the department in 2013 and has since continued as a postdoctoral fellow and researcher. He has built a strong research profile in immunology, with 25 published original articles, including 7 as first author and 4 as senior author, and a total of 1,241 citations. Throughout his career, Iversen has been an active contributor to the research community. He has supervised 2 postdoctoral fellows, 3 master’s students, and co-supervised 3 PhD candidates. In addition, over the past six years, he has been a sought-after speaker at national and international immunology symposia. He has also contributed to teaching at the University of Oslo since 2013. For his efforts, Iversen has received several awards, including the Young Investigator Award from the Scandinavian Society for Immunology and the NSI-Bogen Prize for Young Immunologists from the Bjarne Bogen Foundation. In 2021, he was awarded research funding from South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority as principal investigator for the project Foreign antigens as drivers of autoimmune disease. Today, Iversen continues his research at KLM, building on his established expertise while expanding his work to explore new disease conditions.
We congratulate both researchers on the award and look forward to following their continued contributions to medical research. Photos from the ceremony, which include Julie Elisabeth Heggelund & Rasmus Iversen, can be seen below.
From the ceremony:
Photos: Åsne Rambøl Hillestad
