Pan Hammarström Lab

We focus on two main areas of research: Primary immunodeficiency and B cell malignancy

Pan Hammarström group picture 2024

We focus on two main areas of research; Primary immunodeficiency and B cell malignancy. 

These are our four projects:

  • Regulation of immunoglobulin class switch recombination in human B cells
  • Induced pluripotent stems cells a platform for personalized diagnosis and therapy in patients with primary immunodeficiency
  • Discovery of therapeutic targets in B cell lymphoma by next generation sequencing
  • Antibody therapy against COVID-19

Research techniques

  • DNA sequencing, including whole exome and whole genome sequencing
  • Gene expression analysis including real time PCR and RNAseq/transcriptome analysis
  • B and T cell functional assays
  • Generating iPSCs
  • Gene editing using the CRISPR/Cas9 system

Looking for a postdoc position?

Postdoc positions on B cell development, immunogenetics, COVID19 and cancer genetics available.

For details contact: Prof. Pan-Hammarström

News archive

Publications

Selected publications

Staff and contact

Group leader

All members of the group

Alumni

Aleksi Lähdesmäki, PhD student, 2000-2004

Sicheng Wen, PhD student, 2001-2007

Roujun Peng, PhD student, 2009-2011

Miaoli Lin, visiting PhD student, 2008-2009

Andrea Björkman, PhD student, 2010-2015

Konstantinos Georgiou, PhD student, 2011-2016

Man Nie, visiting PhD student, 2018-2020

Chunli Yang, visiting PhD Student, 2019-2020

Xiaofei Ye, PhD Student 2016-2021

Corinne Petit-Frére, Postdoc, 1999-2001

Shujing Dai, Postdoc, 2001-2002

Wei Zhou, Postdoc, 2003-2004

Xin Li, Postdoc, 2007

Kotnis Ashwin, Postdoc, 2007-2009

Chonghai Liu, Postdoc, 2008-2010

Alberto Cagigi, Postdoc, 2009-2011

Giuseppe Cappellano, Postdoc, 2010-2011

Cornelia Rosner, Postdoc, 2010-2012

Noel Filipe de Miranda, Postdoc, 2010-2013

Georgia Kokaraki, Postdoc, 2011-2013

Chenglin Wu, Postdoc, 2011-2014

Jinqiao Sun, Postdoc, 2013-2014

Kyriaki Liadai, Postdoc, 2013-2014

Apostolos Zaravios, Postdoc, 2014-2015

Radhika Kamdar, Postdoc, 2014-2016

Rozina Caridh, lab coordinator, 2014-2016

Rosa Romano, Postdoc, 2014-2017

Bo Zhang, Postdoc, 2017-2018

Mohammad Pirmoradian, Postdoc, 2016-2019

Sibel Ciftci, Postdoc, 2020-2022

Natalia Sherina, Postdoc, 2020-2022

Wei Li, visiting scientist, 2016-2017

Yinqing Li, visiting scientist, 2017-2018

Jingwei Yu, visiting scientist, 2019

Our research

Regulation of immunoglobulin class switch recombination in human B cells

This project is aimed at understanding the complex molecular mechanisms involved in DNA editing, repair and recombination during immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR) and somatic hypermutation (SHM) and their involvement in the pathophysiological processes leading to immunodeficiency, genome instability and cancer development in humans.

Video explaining non-homologous end joining in class switch recombination

Induced pluripotent stems cells a platform for personalized diagnosis and therapy in patients with primary immunodeficiency

microscopy image
An iPSC colony derived from IgAD patient's fibroblast cells. Photo: Qiang Pan-Hammarström's group Photo: Qiang Pan-Hammarström's group

The project is aimed at reprogramming the fibroblasts derived from primary immunodeficiency patients into pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and re-differentiating these iPS cells into antibody-producing B cells. If successful, this study will provide a methodological platform for the study of human B cell development and for development of new therapies aiming at editing genes/cells in patients with a variety of other primary immunodeficiency diseases.

Discovery of therapeutic targets in B cell lymphoma by next generation sequencing

illustration in coulour showing notch signalling, cell migration, immune escape etc, in red and blue
Altered pathways in Hepatitis B virus - associated in diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Illustration: Qiang Pan Hammarström's group Photo: Qiang Pan-Hammarström's group

The project is aimed at identifying potentially treatable molecular targets in mature B cell lymphomas (with focus on diffuse large B cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma) by applying high-throughput, next generation-sequencing technologies such as whole genome and whole exome sequencing, immune repertoire sequencing, RNA sequencing and single-cell RNA sequencing. The multiomic sequencing data will be further integrated with clinical data as well as functional assays to identify genes/pathways that can be used for disease classification and prediction and for the development of new targeted therapy.

Antibody therapy against COVID-19

The project is aimed at establishing a passive immunotherapy against coronavirus COVID19. To reach this overall goal, we will obtain blood samples from convalescent donors, i.e. people who have recovered from the infection, to isolate antibodies that can be used to prevent and to treat the disease. 

Keywords:
Immunology in the medical area Medical Biotechnology (focus on Cell Biology (incl. Stem Cell Biology), Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry or Biopharmacy) Medical Genetics
QP
Content reviewer:
Sara Lidman
29-04-2024