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
FRANCESCO COSENTINO GROUP
Molecular cardiology
About
The research goal of Prof. Cosentino’s team is to unravel molecular and cellular processes underpinning vascular and cardiac dysfunction in the setting of elevated cardiometabolic risk. The impact of this research is outlined by the notion that prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) is alarmingly increasing worldwide. Although advances in therapy have reduced morbidity and mortality in T2D, cardiovascular risk is far to be eradicated and mechanism-based therapeutic approaches are in high demand. In this perspective, deciphering novel molecular networks of cardiovascular disease will be instrumental to develop effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Furthermore, the research program also aims to understand the link between environmental factors, metabolic disease and premature cardiovascular aging. These objectives are accomplished by a translational approach focused to characterize cardiovascular phenotypes through novel technologies, genetically engineered animal models and clinical studies.
Biography
Francesco Cosentino, MD, PhD
Professor of Cardiology, in the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital. Prof. Cosentino is the recipient of grants and prizes from national and international institutions, research councils and private foundations. He is the leading author of more than 120 original articles published in top-ranking, peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Cosentino is member of the Board of the European Society of Cardiology, chairman of the Task Force for 2019 ESC Guidelines on diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular disease and associate editor of the European Heart Journal.
Selected Publications
Costantino S, Paneni F, Virdis A, Hussain S, Mohammed SA, Capretti G, Akhmedov A, Dalgaard K, Chiandotto S, Pospisilik JA, Jenuwein T, Giorgio M, Volpe M, Taddei S, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Interplay among H3K9-editing enzymes SUV39H1, JMJD2C and SRC-1 drives p66Shc transcription and vascular oxidative stress in obesity. Eur Heart J. 2019 Jan 21;40(4):383-391.
Costantino S, Paneni F, Battista R, Castello L, Capretti G, Chiandotto S, Tanese L, Russo G, Pitocco D, Lanza GA, Volpe M, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Impact of glycemic variability on chromatin remodeling, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes and with target HbA1c levels. 2017 Sep;66(9):2472-2482.
Morici N, Savonitto S, Ponticelli C, Schrieks IC, Nozza A, Cosentino F, Stähli BE, Perrone Filardi P, Schwartz GG, Mellbin L, Lincoff AM, Tardif JC, Grobbee DE. Post-discharge worsening renal function in patients with type 2 diabetes and recent acute coronary syndrome. Am J Med. 2017 Sep;130(9):1068-1075.
Paneni F, Costantino S, Kränkel N, Cosentino F, Lüscher TF. Reprogramming ageing and longevity genes restores paracrine angiogenic properties of early outgrowth cells. Eur Heart J. 2016 Jun 7;37(22):1733-7.
Costantino S, Paneni F, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. MicroRNA profiling unveils hyperglycaemic memory in the diabetic heart. Eur Heart J. 2016 Feb 7;37(6):572-6.
Costantino S, Paneni F, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Pin1 inhibitor Juglone prevents diabetic vascular dysfunction. Int J Cardiol. 2016 Jan 15;203:702-7.
Paneni F, Costantino S, Battista R, Castello L, Capretti G, Chiandotto S, Scavone G, Villano A, Pitocco D, Lanza G, Volpe M, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Adverse Epigenetic Signatures by Histone Methyltransferase Set7 Contribute to Vascular Dysfunction in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Circ Cardiovasc Genet. 2015 Feb;8(1):150-8.
Paneni F, Costantino S, Castello L, Battista R, Capretti G, Chiandotto S, D’Amario D, Scavone G, Villano A, Rustighi A, Crea F, Pitocco D, Lanza G, Volpe M, Del Sal G, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Targeting prolyl-isomerase Pin1 prevents mitochondrial oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction: insights in patients with diabetes. Eur Heart J. 2015 Apr 1;36(13):817-28.
Angeloni E, Paneni F, Landmesser U, Benedetto U, Melina G, Lüscher TF, Volpe M, Sinatra R, Cosentino F. Lack of protective role of HDL-C in patients with coronary artery disease undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting. Eur Heart J. 2013 Dec;34(46):3557-62.
Rydén L, Grant PJ, Anker SD, Berne C, Cosentino F, et al. ESC Guidelines on diabetes, pre-diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases developed in collaboration with the EASD: the Task Force on diabetes, pre-diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and developed in collaboration with the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Eur Heart J. 2013 Oct;34(39):3035-87.
Paneni F, Osto E, Costantino S, Mateescu B, Briand S, Coppolino G, Perna E, Mocharla P, Akhmedov A, Kubant R, Rohrer L, Malinski T, Camici GG, Matter CM, Mechta-Grigoriou F, Volpe M, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Deletion of the activated protein-1 transcription factor JunD induces oxidative stress and accelerates age-related endothelial dysfunction. Circulation. 2013 Mar 19;127(11):1229-40.
Paneni F, Mocharla P, Akhmedov A, Costantino S, Osto E, Volpe M, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Gene silencing of the mitochondrial adaptor p66(Shc) suppresses vascular hyperglycemic memory in diabetes. Circ Res. 2012 Jul 20;111(3):278-89.
Ghiadoni L, Faita F, Salvetti M, Cordiano C, Biggi A, Puato M, Di Monaco A, De Siati L, Volpe M, Ambrosio G, Gemignani V, Muiesan ML, Taddei S, Lanza GA, Cosentino F. Assessment of flow-mediated dilation reproducibility: a nationwide multicenter study. J Hypertens. 2012 Jul;30(7):1399-405.
Cosentino F, Battista R, Scuteri A, De Sensi F, De Siati L, Di Russo C, Camici GG, Volpe M. Impact of fasting glycemia and regional cerebral perfusion in diabetic subjects: a study with technetium-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer single photon emission computed tomography. Stroke. 2009 Jan;40(1):306-8.
Osto E, Kouroedov A, Mocharla P, Akhmedov A, Besler C, Rohrer L, von Eckardstein A, Iliceto S, Volpe M, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Inhibition of protein kinase Cbeta prevents foam cell formation by reducing scavenger receptor A expression in human macrophages. Circulation. 2008 Nov 18;118(21):2174-82.
Osto E, Matter CM, Kouroedov A, Malinski T, Bachschmid M, Camici GG, Kilic U, Stallmach T, Boren J, Iliceto S, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. c-Jun N-terminal kinase 2 deficiency protects against hypercholesterolemia-induced endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Circulation. 2008 Nov 11;118(20):2073-80.
Camici GG, Schiavoni M, Francia P, Bachschmid M, Martin-Padura I, Hersberger M, Tanner FC, Pelicci P, Volpe M, Anversa P, Lüscher TF, Cosentino F. Genetic deletion of p66(Shc) adaptor protein prevents hyperglycemia-induced endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Mar 20;104(12):5217-22.