Research group Jakob Wikström

Cutting edge translational research of common and rare skin disease

Skin is the largest human organ and has a complex architecture and regulation. With our research – rooted within the fields of metabolism and cell biology – we perform translational research aimed at developing better understanding and treatment of common and rare skin disease. We use techniques such as advanced patient cell culture, primary human skin explant culture, confocal microscopy, metabolomics, extracellular flux analysis and RNA-sequencing. In particular, we focus on patient samples and perform bed-to-bench studies to decipher the underlying mechanisms.

Ongoing research projects

• Chronic leg ulcers cause great suffering in the elderly and consume 2 % of the health care budget; yet the wound healing process is incompletely understood and today´s treatments are often inadequate.
• Metabolism in skin wound healing. In this project we use mass spectrometry based metabolomics to study how metabolism changes in wound healing and examine if targeting metabolism is a viable approach to enhancing human wound healing.
• Mitochondria in skin wound healing. In this project we use several molecular biology methods to study a certain mitochondrial gene found to be altered in clinical wound samples and how this gene impacts normal and impaired human wound healing as well as normal skin homeostasis.
• Psoriasis is a severe inflammatory common skin condition that affects both the skin as well as other organs. While there has been recent significant therapeutic advances, metabolic aspects of the disease is largely unexplored.
• Metabolism in psoriasis. In this project we use mass spectrometry based metabolomics and proteomics to study a large amount of patient biopsies to characterize the metabolic changes occurring in psoriasis. We use in vitro and in vivo disease models to decipher the role of altered metabolites and proteins in psoriasis pathophysiology.
• There are many rare skin diseases and most of them lack targeted efficient therapies. Darier disease is a genetic skin condition caused by mutations in the ATP2A2 gene that encodes for the endoplasmic reticulum pump SERCA2.
• Novel treatments for Darier disease. In this project we use in vitro screening approaches to identify novel treatments. Our aim is to identify novel compounds and take them all the way to clinical trials.
• Co-morbidities or Darier disease. In collaboration with epidemiologist Martin Cederlöf we perform clinical cohort studes and patient registry research to identify medical conditions associated with Darier disease. We have proposed that Darier disease in fact is a systemic condition not just confined to the skin.

Group members