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.
Read more
Contact: communication@cmm.se
CENTER FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE
Calendar
Upcoming Events
Friday 14 October
09:00
Dissertation
Marika Ström
Welcome to Marika Ström's dissertation
Title: Systems biology approaches to investigate mechanisms of obstructive lung disease
Speaker: Marika Ström
Opponent
Docent Malin Linder Nording, Kemiska institutionen, Umeå Universitet
Examination Board
Docent Mikael Adner
Karolinska Institutet, Institutet för Miljömedicin.
Professor Peter Nilsson
KTH, SciLifeLab, Institutionen för proteinvetenskap.
Docent Ning Xu Landén
Karolinska Institutet, Institutionen för medicin, Solna.
Main supervisor
Docent Åsa Wheelock
Karolinska Institutet, Department of medicine, Solna, Division of Respiratory medicine
Co-supervisors
Professor Magnus Sköld
Professor Susanne Gabrielsson
Med Dr Eva Berggren-Broström
Location: Petrénsalen, Nobels väg 12B
Friday 21 October
09:00
Dissertation
Andrew Buckler
Welcome to Andrew Buckler's dissertation
Title: Linking Quantitative Radiology to Molecular Mechanism for Improved Vascular Disease Therapy Selection and Follow-up
Speaker: Andrew Buckler
Opponent
Professor Scott M. Damrauer, University of Pennsylvania
Examination Board
Laszlo Fuchs, KTH
Bengt Persson, Uppsala University
Örjan Smedby, KTH
Main supervisor
Ulf Hedin, MMK
Co-supervisors
Ljubica Matic, MMK
T. Christian Gasser, KTH
Location: Rolf Luft Lecture Hall, L1:00
Friday 11 November
Dissertation
Bianca E. Suur
Welcome to Bianca E. Suur's dissertation
Title: The role of proprotein convertases in vascular disease
Speaker: Bianca Esmée Suur
Opponent
Jacob F. Bentzon, Aarhus University
Examination Board
Johan Frostegård, Karolinska Institutet
Emma Börgeson, University of Gothenburg
Lars Jakobsson, Karolinska Institutet
Main supervisor
Ljubica Matic, MMK
Co-supervisors
Ulf Hedin, MMK
Daniel F.J. Ketelhuth, Medicin Solna
Location: Atrium, Wargentinhuset, Nobels väg 12B
23-24 November
Cardiovascular research symposium
(external)
CMMer Anton Gisterå invites you to this external event.
