Mats G. Hansson

Mats G. Hansson
Professor of Biomedical Ethics
Director
Mats Hansson is the director of the Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics and has conducted extensive research in biomedical ethics as principal investigator in several multi-disciplinary research projects dealing with issues ranging from ethical, social and legal aspects of the implementation of genetic diagnosis in clinical practice and the use of human tissue materials in research, to clinical and medical ethics. He holds an undergraduate degree in biology (1974) and a doctoral degree of theology (1991). Mats Hansson is Professor of Biomedical Ethics, funded by Uppsala University and the Uppsala County Council together. He also works as a clinical consultant at Akademiska sjukhuset (Uppsala University Hospital).
E-mail: Mats.Hansson@crb.uu.se
Phone: +46 18 471 61 97
Research
Mats G. Hansson leads work packages on ethical, legal and social issues in several EU projects on biobank and registry research. He is the principal investigator in Mind the Risk and one of the co-ordinators of BBMRI-ERIC's ELSI common service.
PhD Supervision
Current
- Åsa Grauman: Self-perceived risk for cardiovascular diseases and preferences for risk information
- Sofia Lavén: Cardiovascular risk communication in primary care
- Karin Schölin Bywall: The value of patient preferences in drug development for rheumatoid arthritis
Completed
- Ashkan Atry: Is Fair Play Compatible with Doping in Sport?
- Joanna Forsberg: Ethical aspects of biobank research – Individual rights vs. the public good? (PhD 2012)
- Li Jalmsell: At the intersection of curative and palliative treatment in paediatric oncology (PhD 2015)
- Linus Johnsson: Autonomy and trust in biobank research (PhD 2013)
- Amal Matar: Ethical issues in preconception genetic screening (PhD 2019)
- Malin Masterton: Duties to Past Persons: Moral Standing and Posthumous Interests of Old Human Remains (PhD 2012)
- Jennifer Viberg: How should incidental findings in biobank research and genome sequencing studies be handled? (PhD 2018)
Recently in the media
- En ny etikprövningslag behövs, Dagens Medicin, Debatt, 9 February 2016
- Öppenheten förstör chansen till patent, Svenska Dagbladet Debatt, 21 June 2015
- Stora nätverk med patientdata ger chans att höja vården, Dagens Medicin, Debatt, 12 June 2014
- Integritet är en balansgång, Dagens Medicin, 8 November 2013
Managing genetic risk information

Research generates huge amounts of genetic information. How should we handle it? That is what we are trying to find out in a large international research project.
Medication safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding

The IMI funded ConcePTION project is building a pan-European ecosystem for generating, monitoring, and providing robust information on medication safety in pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Patient preferences
Giving patients a voice in drug development

PREFER is a five year public-private research project where academic researchers and the pharmaceutical industry work together to find out when and where patients want, can and should be involved in drug development
Biobank Sweden
ELSI service

CRB provides ELSI helpdesk service for Swedish researchers through Biobank Sweden.
Patient prefrences
Rheumatoid Arthritis

Karin Schölin Bywall will look at how rheumatoid arthritis patient preferences can provide added value in regulatory decision making in the drug development process.
Stem cell treatment of type 1 diabetes

We provide ethical and legal analysis and guidance on development of products for treating type 1 diabetes, using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
ELSI Commmon Service for BBMRI-ERIC

BBMRI-ERIC aims to increase efficacy and excellence of European bio-medical research. We are part of the ELSI-common service.
Preferences
Cardiovascular risk information

Åsa Grauman will investigate how research participants perceive their personal risk for cardiovascular disease, and their perceptions on cardiovascular risk information.
Communicating risk for heart disease

Sofia Lavén is studying cardiovascular risk communication in primary care and how general practitioners value and communicate lifestyle and genetic risk factors.
Recent publications
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"A perfect society": Swedish policymakers' ethical and social views on preconception expanded carrier screening
Part of Journal of Community Genetics, p. 267-280, 2019.
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Exploring research participants' perceptions of cardiovascular risk information-Room for improvement and empowerment
Part of Patient Education and Counseling, p. 1528-1534, 2019.
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Patient Perspectives on the Value of Patient Preference Information in Regulatory Decision Making: A Qualitative Study in Swedish Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Part of Patient, p. 297-305, 2019.
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Short-term mental distress in research participants after receiving cardiovascular risk information
Part of PLoS ONE, 2019.
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Values and value conflicts in implementation and use of preconception expanded carrier screening: an expert interview study
Part of BMC Medical Ethics, 2019.
Biobank and registry ethics & law
For many years, researchers at CRB have provided constructive advise on how to deal with ethical and legal aspects of research using human tissue material and personal data. We have collaborated with biomedical scientists and published our findings in peer reviewed journals. As a summary of this research we have compiled a list of publications with abstracts. We have grouped them thematically to help you find the ones you might be interested in reading. Our publications deal with ethical frameworks and policy, regulatory aspects of biobank and registry research, informed consent, ethical review, integrity concerns, trust, genetic testing, indicental findings, commercialization, public and patient perceptions, rare diseases, children & biobanks & genetics, and biobank studies.

Biobanks as resources for health
Hansson & Levin (eds) 2003
The potential benefits of biomedicine and biotechnology are considerable, but this is also an area of science and medicine that is sometimes found controversial. Decisions made by scientists, by health care professionals and by policymakers must be well informed and based on knowledge and sound research. Legal experts concerned with public law and intellectual property rights, philosophers and social pharmacists have been collaborating with geneticists, pathologists and doctors in several research projects in order to seek the kind of biobank management that would satisfy the interests of both the research community and the general public as regards new medicines and forms of treatment, whilst protecting the integrity of the individual. A summary of that research is presented in this book.
