Biography
Professor Robert A. Harris
Professor Robert A. Harris (Bob) was born in Harpenden in Southern UK in 1966. He conducted a Bsc.Hons undergraduate degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic, majoring in Parasitology in 1987. PhD studies at University College London studying innate immune agglutinins in Schistosoma host snail species with Terry Preston and Vaughan Southgate as supervisors culminated with a thesis defence in early 1991. A 2.5 year postdoc at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in Paul Kaye’s research group ensued, with focus on understanding the intracellular fate of Leishmania spp. protozoans in macrophages. Bob was awarded a Wellcome Trust postdoctoral fellowship that permitted his relocation to the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) in the spring of 1994. A postdoc period was spent split between the labs of Anders Örn and Tomas Olsson, in which he studied Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma bruceii protozoan proteins. Bob became an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institutet in 1999, heralding his establishment as a PI. Bob started to work with autoimmune diseases in 1996 and began study of therapy using live parasite infections or parasite molecules. His research group has developed autoantigen-specific vaccines, defined the effects of post-translational biochemical molecules on autoantigenicity and developed a macrophage adoptive transfer therapy that prevents pathogenesis in several experimental disease models. He became Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological Diseases in 2013. In recent years research focus has centred on understanding the immunopathogenesis of incurable neurodegenerative diseases, with particular emphasis on development of immunotherapies directed at microglial cells as potential therapeutic paradigms.
Bob Harris CV July 2020
ERIK HERLENIUS GROUP
Development of autonomic control
About
Immature or deficient autonomic control is a common problem in infants born at a premature age and is of central importance in apneas, secondary hypoxic brain damage and sudden infant death syndrome.
PER ERIKSSON GROUP
Research
For better understanding of disturbances in respiratory control we study early development of cardiorespiratory control, brainstem neural networks and its associations with normal and pathological breathing. The conceptual change introduced by our recent data that endogenous prostaglandins are central pathogenic factors in respiratory disorders and the hypoxic response, open new diagnostic and therapeutic avenues that should significantly better the diagnostics and treatment of newborns and adult patients.
Inflammation is a major culprit in breathing disorders and we hypothesize that by using a newly developed urinary prostaglandin biomarker we can screen, detect and protect against inflammation related breathing disorders.
Our collaborative efforts enable us to move from a clinical problem to molecular understanding of the disease and studies are performed in patients, animal & in vitro models.
Our research is focused on the development of autonomic control with normal and paediatric patients as the target. Autonomic dysfunction in breathing and circulatory control often has its origin in neurodevelopment disorders. Furthermore, our basic research in developmental neuroscience how neural activity and stem cells form activity dependent networks is vital for the development of therapeutic interventions.
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Contact: communication@cmm.se
CENTER FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE
Steering Group
The Steering Group is responsible for the overall research activities at CMM, ensuring their performance in a successful manner. It acts as a supportive organ to the Director, who makes the formal decisions.
The Steering Group ensures a continuous discussion between the researchers and staff at CMM, the management and the Board. All CMM personnel are welcome to contribute to and are important in discussions regarding policies, recruitment and research focus in a simultaneous top-down and bottoms-up process. Relevant issues are discussed during regular meetings (once per month) and the Steering Group makes recommendations to the Director regarding actions. The Steering Group is responsible for the execution of decided activities.
Major issues, e.g. issues regarding organizational structure, are presented to the CMM Board together with basic data for decision making but the Steering Group is responsible for the execution of the made decision.
Questions within the scope of the Steering Group:
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Organizational development
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Strategies for the scientific development of CMM
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Recruitment of scientists and groups
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Termination or relocation of research groups
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Support for research groups
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Division of space
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Common instruments and core facilities
The Steering Group consists of
Michael Sundström, PhD, Director
Peder S. Olofsson, Associate Professor, Specialist in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Responsible Publisher
Maja Jagodic, Professor, Core facilities
Olle Kämpe, Professor, Senior Physician, Outreach program
Fredrik Piehl, Professor, Senior physician, Clinical research
Catharina Lavebratt, Associate Professor
Board
The CMM Board is responsible for the quality of the research performed at CMM. To aid the Board in these matters we also have a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), consisting of internationally recognized and prominent scientists. The CMM Board normally meets 4-6 times per year.
The CMM Board has the responsibility to ensure that the activities of CMM follow the original intentions as stated by the by-laws of the foundation.
The main task of the CMM Board is to promote thorough and boundary-crossing research within the areas mentioned in the by-laws of the foundation. This includes assuming the utmost responsibility for the continuous evaluation of the CMM activities and that the evaluations lead to concrete actions.
Board of directors
Liselotte Jansson, Chair, Secretary General Alzheimerfonden, Chair of Hypergene AB, Chair of the research foundation AlzeCure. Elected 2011. E-mail: liselotte.jansson@ki.se
Lennart Låftman, MBA DHS, Chair of Erik Penser Fonder AB, CEO at the now closed 5th Swedish National Pension Fund. Elected 1999.
Ylva Pernow, MD and senior lecturer Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet. Representing Karolinska University Hospital. Elected 2015.
Sten Eirik Jacobsen, Professor, Karolinska Institutet and University of Oxford, England. Elected 2015.
Magnus Thyberg, Head of department Strategiska vårdgivarfrågor Region Stockholm. Elected 2019.
Lotta Håkansson, Chair Swedish Rheumatism Association. Elected 2019.
Substitute board member
Magnus Nordenskjöld, Professor, Karolinska Insitutet. Elected 2019
Affiliated
Anders Gustafsson, Professor, Vice President of Karolinska Institutet