Our research
We study autoantibody-driven disorders that affect central nervous system functioning, especially autoimmune encephalitides. These peculiar disorders tend to be antigen-specific and thus knock out the function of individual neuronal surface proteins. This means that many of the disorders show near-pathognomonic traits, such as faciobrachial dystonic seizures in patients in LGI1 encephalitis and rapid-onset disorganised psychotic features and catatonia in NMDA-R encephalitis. Furthermore, the immunological mechanisms differ from syndrome to syndrome; LGI1-encephalitis, e..g., has a very strong association to HLA-DRB1*07:01, whereas no HLA-association has been established for NMDA-R encephalitis, that instead is associated to viral encephalitides as well as ovarian teratomas.
Autoimmune encephalitides have recently been identified and thus the group of disorders as well as the incidence are increasing. Our team aims to study these disorders from a wide range of angles, including epidemiological projects, diagnostic method development (both wet lab and software-based) as well as immunpathogenetic studies. We are also active in the national, Scandinavian and international autoimmune encephalitis community, and are in close contact with Encephalitis International, the largest patient organisation in the world for encephalitis survivors.