'One Health Updates' from SLU Future One Health

No. 28 • September • 2026

The whole group of conference attendees poses together in front of the manor's white facade and wooden door in the evening sun.

Participants in this year’s Researcher Residency, organised by the SLU Future Platforms, which aims to strengthen interdisciplinary research at SLU and create new links and collaborations across research fields. Photo: Teresia Borgman.

Connecting across disciplines

A new semester is well under way at SLU – and so are the opportunities to meet, exchange ideas and build new collaborations.

We started the autumn with our annual Researcher Residency at Philipssonska Gården, where researchers from different disciplines, departments and faculties came together for two days of discussions, new perspectives and potential research collaborations. This year, the conversations centred around preparedness, resilience and some of the complex societal challenges where no single discipline holds all the answers.

Interdisciplinarity has remained a focus this September. In mid-September, the SLU Future Platforms invited researchers and colleagues from across SLU to a full day dedicated to interdisciplinary research. Among the contributors were this year’s Interdisciplinary Academy (IDA) participants, who shared their projects and reflected on their experiences of working across disciplinary boundaries. In the next round of IDA, 2026–2027, one of the groups will focus on conceptualising antimicrobial resistance from an interdisciplinary One Health perspective.

At SLU Future One Health, the autumn is also up and running. We have already held the semester’s first One Health Breakfast Club – with more opportunities to meet, learn and connect coming up. Keep an eye on our upcoming events in our calendar!

As always, in this issue we share a selection of One Health research, interviews and events from across SLU.

Enjoy your reading!

Attendees outdoors talking to each other. Photo.

New perspectives on preparedness across research disciplines

How can researchers from very different fields contribute to a more prepared and resilient society?

At this year’s Researcher Residency, SLU researchers came together to explore preparedness from different perspectives – and discovered new connections between their research along the way.

“It was really encouraging to see that a group of strangers could come together and cooperatively form and flesh out a new research idea in such a short time”, says Sheila Holmes, one of the participants.

Photo: Nina Lind Ranneberg, SLU

Veterinarian Ingrid Ljungvall stands next to an ECG machine in front of an anatomical poster of the canine heart.

A new Professor of One Health at SLU

Ingrid Ljungvall is SLU’s new Professor of One Health with a focus on comparative medicine. In this interview, she talks about her new role and how comparative medicine can strengthen One Health research at SLU.

Photo: Jenny Svennås Gillner, SLU

Read the interview with Ingrid Ljungvall

A young male graduate student examines a smear in a laboratory setting. Photo.

Congrats to our new PhDs

– Congrats to new PhDs – with research linked to One Health!

Trang Thi Huyen Le, Department of Animal Biosciences: Improving food safety in Vietnam’s traditional pork supply chain: evaluation of interventions in slaughterhouses and markets through a One Health approach

Alejandro Barrios Latorre, Department of Biosystems and Technology, Feeding the bioeconomy: A systems analysis of intermediate crops and crop residues

Juliah Jacob, Department of Plant Protection Biology, The effect of biotic and abiotic stress on mosquito fitness and behaviour: a tale of four species

Svante Rehnstam, Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Untargeted analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances: an analysis of contaminated waters and advanced treatment processes

Murilo Araujo Sandroni, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Induced resistance and advanced phenotyping for potato late blight management in future climates

Why some people get bitten by mosquitoes more often than others

Meet Rickard Ignell, who explains which scents attract mosquitoes – and whether they have a particular favourite. His research could contribute to new ways of combating mosquito-borne diseases.

Watch the video!

Two veterinarians examining dogs in a veterinary clinic.

When veterinary research benefits both animals and humans

This year’s Award for Outstanding Research in Veterinary Medicine goes to SLU professors Jens Häggström and Ingrid Ljungvall for their research on heart disease in dogs and cats.

Their work has improved diagnostics and treatment for companion animals – but it also reaches beyond veterinary medicine. By studying diseases that occur naturally in both animals and humans, comparative medicine can generate knowledge that benefits both, making it an important part of the One Health perspective.

A figure with an One Health approach with four circles; Plants, People, Animals and Environment

A selection of One Health research

A selection of news and research results linked to One Health area.

(Primarily in English, Swedish if the content is not available in English).

Highlights this time:

The mosquito’s transition from vegan to bloodsucker explained
New major study: Baltic Sea food webs remain out of balance despite decades of measures (SLU News)
Så kan vi minska saltets skador på stadens grönska (SLU News, only in Swedish)
Photos show how species are returning to reforestation areas in Madagascar (SLU News)
Pharmaceuticals accumulate in sediments – new insights into impacts on life below the surface (SLU News) (SLU Knowledge Bank)
Ticks in northern Sweden – what diseases do they carry? (SLU Knowledge Bank)
What rural communities can teach us about wildfire prevention and recovery (SLU Knowledge Bank)
Exercising together provides health benefits for both owners and dogs (SLU Knowledge Bank)

More One Health research

Share your One Health research

Throughout the year, we have met both early-career and senior researchers through our interview series, highlighting the breadth of One Health research at SLU.

Would you like to share your own research and how it relates to the health of animals, people, plants and the environment?

Please contact us – we are always happy to highlight new perspectives and collaborations.

Breakfast buffet with coffee, juice and more. Photo.

The One Health Breakfast Club

Join us next time when Yonas Meheretu, researcher at the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, gives an inspirational talk about: One Health in Action: Field Research and Early Insights from Mount Damota

The last sign-up day is 6 October! See you there!

Our aim with The One Health Breakfast Club is to stimulate interdisciplinary and cross-faculty collaborations. We meet and greet on a regular basis, to hopefully gain some new insights and inspiration while having breakfast together.