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
Wednesday 31 May
Super-resolution STED microscopy launch
at CMM

Welcome to the launch of super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy at CMM on May 31st 2023 at 10:00 h – 16:00 h
Program
10:00 – 11:00 Super-Resolution Microscopy Techniques
(lecture, CMM L8:01 room 021), Hans Blom, KTH Royal Institute of Technology & SciLifeLab
11:00 – 12:00 STED in a Shoebox, Jan Vavra, Abberior,
online lecture in Zoom: https://ki-se.zoom.us/j/66757220410?pwd=Rk1ZTmJFY3FaNUpzZkNhNm5wb0RQUT09
13:00 – 16:00 Hands-on STED imaging (15 min)
To take part in the hands-on, please apply in advance by sending an e-mail to Sho.Oasa@ki.se. Indicate in your message the 15 min time slot between 13:00 h and 16;00 h that suits you most and whether you would like to bring your own sample. In case that you do not have your own sample, a test slide will be used for your training.
Venue: CMM L8:01, room 021 (seminar room) and 056: Laboratory for functional Fluorescence Microscopy Imaging (fFMI)
Tuesday 13 June
NeuroimmunometabolismSymposium
at BioClinicum
Welcome to a Neuroimmunometabolism Symposium in the afternoon of June 13 at BioClinicum.
Speakers:
-
Ana Domingos, Oxford, “Neuroimmune interactions in metabolic homeostasis and obesity”
-
Tak W Mak, Toronto, “Cholinergic regulation of immune responses: Implications for anti-microbial and anti-tumor defenses”
-
Kevin J Tracey, New York, “Bioelectronic medicine: Preclinical insights and clinical advances”
Schedule and more detailed information: TBA
Venue: BioClinicum
Wednesday 30 August
CMM
Faculty Breakfast
For CMM Group and Team Leaders
Welcome to CMM Faculty Breakfast for CMM Group and Team Leaders on Wednesday 2023-08-30
Check in at 08:15
Meeting Start 08:30
Meeting End 09:30
CMM Faculty Breakfast is for CMM Group Leaders and Team Leaders. The idea is to have breakfast once a month during the semester, to offer a stimulating environment for intellectual conversations under informal circumstances.
Topic: The Future of research assessment in the Open Science era
Speaker: Robert Harris, Professor, Academic Vice President of Doctoral Education, Chair of International Advisory Council
Location: TBD