Mikael Rydén & Niklas Mejhert lab

After spending five years as a Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Niklas returned to Karolinska Institutet in 2019 on a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global fellowship. Shortly after his return, he started a joint group with Mikael Rydén.

Mikael is a Senior consultant in endocrinology and Professor of adipose tissue research. He has spent the last 25 years of his career focusing on studies of white adipose tissue. Mikael is the co-leader of the research group together with Niklas Mejhert.

Support staff

Thais received her Ph.D. at the University of Sao Paulo. Thereafter she moved to Stockholm for her postdoctoral studies, where she focused on the effects of paternal transgenerational inheritance of metabolic diseases.

Thais joined the Rydén and Mejhert lab in 2018 as Research Specialist.

Katarina is an experienced research nurse who is the key person in all clinical studies performed in the lab. She is an expert in methods such as clamps, indirect calorimetry, tissue biopsies and different types of metabolic challenges.

Lena is the administrative anchor of the research group and has been working at Karolinska Institutet over three decades. She is the go-to person for everything spanning from orders to travels as well as all other small and big administrative tasks.

Ewa is an experienced research nurse who is involved in all clinical studies performed in the lab. She has vast experience in methods such as ultrasound to determine carotid-intima media thickness and peripheral tissue oxygen measures.

As a Ph.D. student and postdoctoral fellow at Karolinska Institutet, Na studied the genetic background of endocrine-related tumors. Since 2020, she is a Research Specialistat the Rydén & Mejhert lab.

Researchers

As a postdoctoral researcher in the Rydén and Mejhert lab, Lynn is studying adipocyte immunometabolism.

Lynn received her Ph.D. from a collaborative program between Universite Paris Cite and the AUB Diabetes Programme at the American University of Beirut. Her work was focused on understanding the fundamental principles and mechanistic pathways involved in inducing the vulnerability of the diabetic brain to Alzheimer’s and emotional disorders.

Daniel is a senior consultant in endocrinology working with different clinical interventions. He has experience from multiple academic and industry-sponsored studies focusing on metabolism and diabetes.

Jesper is currently pursuing his residency in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at the Karolinska University Hospital. At the Rydén and Mejhert lab, his project revolves around spatial mapping approaches of human white adipose tissue.

Merve completed her bachelor in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bogazici University in Turkey. Thereafter, she started her Master degree in Biomedicine programme at Karolinska Institutet.

She was recruited as a PhD student to the Rydén and Mejhert lab prior to finalizing her studies. As a PhD student in the lab, Merve is studying adipocyte heterogeneity.

Daniel is a specialist in internal medicine and endocrinology. His post-doctoral studies focus on the long-term effects of bariatric surgery.

Scott obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto where he studied insulin signaling in different cell models. In 2021, he was recruited to the Rydén and Mejhert lab to study insulin resistance mechanisms in human white adipose tissue in vivo and in vitro.

Omar completed his Ph.D. at Uppsala University where he studied mechanisms coupling glucose sensing to hormone secretion in different pancreatic cells. In 2022, he was recruited to the Rydén and Mejhert lab to study adipocyte heterogeneity at the organellar level.

Jutta obtained her M.Sc. in Drug Discovery and Development at the University of Turku. As a Ph.D. student at the Rydén and Mejhert lab, Jutta studies the cellular landscape and microarchitecture of different human white adipose tissue depots.

Alison completed her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, studying the effects of exercise on adipose tissue remodeling. Alison has a background in applied human metabolism and her current project is to identify transcriptional determinants of adipocyte lipid storage capacity.

Lucas received his Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig, trying to find evidence for the presence and role of bacteria in adipose tissue and their impact on insulin resistance.

At the Rydén and Mejhert lab, Lucas studies fibroadipogenic precursor biology to identify determinants of adipocyte heterogeneity.

Salwan joined the Rydén and Mejhert lab in 2019. Prior to that he worked as an M.D. in the Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital and obtained his Ph.D. from University Clermont Auvergne.

At Karolinska Institutet, Salwan studies mechanisms by which adipocyte metabolic anomalies in the obese insulin resistant state influence bioenergetic and inflammatory pathways.

Gianluca obtained his M.Sc. in Nutritional Science at Karolinska Institutet.

As a Ph.D. student at the Rydén and Mejhert lab, Gianluca studies phosphocreatine metabolism and its crosstalk with other metabolic processes.

Sara is currently pursuing her residency in endocrinology at the Karolinska University Hospital. Her projects are focused on clinical studies of type 1 diabetes.

Danai received her PhD at the National Technical University of Athens, where she applied experimental and computational systems biology approaches to repurpose drugs for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. She was recruited to Rydén and Mejhert lab in 2022 to identify regulators of adipocyte lipid metabolism.

Jiawei received his M.Sc. in Molecular Medicine at Sun Yat-sen University. There his research focused on single-cell biology, developing novel single-cell tools to monitor RNA isoform dynamics during retina development and in diabetic keratopathy.

At the Rydén and Mejhert lab, Jiawei is dissecting the gene regulatory networks operating in white adipose using spatial transcriptomics.

Publications

1. Impaired phosphocreatine metabolism in white adipocytes promotes inflammation.
   Maqdasy S, Lecoutre S, Renzi G, Frendo-Cumbo S, Rizo-Roca D, Moritz T, Juvany M, Hodek O, Gao H, Couchet M, Witting M, Kerr A, Bergo MO, Choudhury RP, Aouadi M, Zierath JR, Krook A, Mejhert N, Rydén M
   Nat Metab 2022 Feb;4(2):190-202 PMID: 35165448
    
2. The Lipid Droplet Knowledge Portal: A resource for systematic analyses of lipid droplet biology.
   Mejhert N, Gabriel KR, Frendo-Cumbo S, Krahmer N, Song J, Kuruvilla L, Chitraju C, Boland S, Jang DK, von Grotthuss M, Costanzo MC, Rydén M, Olzmann JA, Flannick J, Burtt NP, Farese RV, Walther TC
   Dev Cell 2022 02;57(3):387-397.e4 PMID: 35134345
    
3. Spatial mapping reveals human adipocyte subpopulations with distinct sensitivities to insulin.
   Bäckdahl J, Franzén L, Massier L, Li Q, Jalkanen J, Gao H, Andersson A, Bhalla N, Thorell A, Rydén M, Ståhl PL, Mejhert N
   Cell Metab 2021 09;33(9):1869-1882.e6 PMID: 34380013
    
4. Human White Adipose Tissue Displays Selective Insulin Resistance in the Obese State.
   Mileti E, Kwok KHM, Andersson DP, Mathelier A, Raman A, Bäckdahl J, Jalkanen J, Massier L, Thorell A, Gao H, Arner P, Mejhert N, Daub CO, Rydén M
   Diabetes 2021 07;70(7):1486-1497 PMID: 33863803
    
5. Age-Induced Reduction in Human Lipolysis: A Potential Role for Adipocyte Noradrenaline Degradation.
   Gao H, Arner P, Beauchef G, Guéré C, Vie K, Dahlman I, Mejhert N, Rydén M
   Cell Metab 2020 07;32(1):1-3 PMID: 32589948