The Tobias Foundation: Thirtytwo years of Building Hope

The Tobias Foundation was established in 1992 with the purpose “to support the establishment of a Swedish bone marrow/stem cell registry and to support research concerning diseases that can be treated with bone marrow/stem cell transplantation”

The Tobias Register that was established the same year has today over 235,000 registered potential donors estimated to cover a majority of all Swedes in need of a donor. Over 1400 bone marrow/stem cell transplantations have been performed involving a donor from The Tobias Register. More than half of the recipients have resided outside of Sweden, making The Tobias Register an important partner in the world.

In 2001 The Tobias Foundation granted a 15-year professorship in stem cell research to Professor Jonas Frisén, Karolinska Institutet. From its establishment through 2007, The Tobias Foundation has provided 102 smaller grants to 51 researchers.

The foundation has since 2008 concentrated its focus in favor of longer term research initiatives that require more substantial funding. A Tobias Prize, a 10 MSEK grant for research during a 5-year period and 0.1 MSEK in prize money was created. So far five recipients have been selceted by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

In 2020 a 10 MSEK grant was awarded to Magnus Tobiasson and Eva Hellström Lindberg for early detection of a possible relaps enabling more patients to be cured. The study will be perfomed in cooperation with all transplantation centers in the Nordic countries.

In 2023, Mattias Carlsten at Karolinska Institutet was awarded a five-year grant of 5 MSEK for research to improve outcomes and quality of life for transplant patients.

Donations and the yield on The Tobias Foundation’s capital finance all activities.