Photo: Markus Marcetic/SUA
Our bone marrow contains a rare population of blood-forming stem cells capable of sustaining a daily production of billions of mature blood cells throughout life. These blood stem cells are also responsible for the regeneration of the blood system following bone marrow transplantation. Bone marrow transplantation is a life-saving therapy for thousands of cancer patients each year but is also associated with significant risks and many patients cannot receive treatment due to insufficient numbers of stem cells. A better understanding of how blood stem cells are regulated would enable us to increase the number of stem cells before transplantation and thereby achieve better and safer therapies. Our laboratory investigates the genes and pathways that regulate the ability of blood stem cells to self-renew and thereby replicate themselves. Rather than studying one gene or one factor at a time we have developed methods that allow the functional testing of thousands of genes in parallel. We aim to identify the most significant regulators that are relevant to the target to achieve stem cell expansion for clinical benefit.
Birth year: 1971
Family: Wife and two daughters born in ’99 and ’03
Interests: Family, travelling abroad, cooking, football
I want to be involved in influencing the direction of research policy in Sweden and promote issues related to gender equality and the conditions for younger researchers, amongst other things. I also want to contribute to creating a greater interest in research and research issues outside university walls. Through the Young Academy of Sweden, I get to experience exciting and inspiring meetings with researchers from other subjects and research areas than my own.
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