Human innate lymphoid cell lab – Jenny Mjösberg group

The research conducted in the Jenny Mjösberg group aims to characterize the role for innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in intestinal inflammation, cancer and asthma. Our research objective is ultimately to increase the understanding of disease mechanisms, discovering novel treatment targets and strategies for patient stratification in biologics treatment.

Part of the:
Group photo.

Vår forskning

Med vår forskning hoppas vi kunna öka kunskapen kring sjukdomsmekanismer och därmed upptäcka nya mål för behandling. Vår målsättning är också att hitta sätt att stratifiera patienter för optimal behandling med biologiska läkemedel och därmed bidra till precisionsmedicin i IBD, kolorektalcancer samt allergi och astma.

Läs mer om forskningen i Jenny Mjösbergs grupp på den engelska sidan. 

Publications

Selected publications

Funding

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2025 - 31 December 2029
    Biologics targeting type 2 cytokines offer new hope for patients with severe asthma, but not all patients respond, and none are cured. This calls for increased understanding of airway tissue type 2 lymphocytes and how they are regulated by biologics. Innate lymphoid cells type 2 (ILC2) and type 2 T cells (Th2 and Tc2), orchestrate type 2 inflammation. I will build on our unexpected finding that treatment with anti-interleukin (IL)-5 biologics causes an increase in circulating type 2 lymphocytes, implying biologics effects on lymphocyte trafficking, differentiation, and tissue residency. To test this hypothesis, I will capitalize on leading a clinical asthma research unit and immunology lab, enabling us to perform pioneering immunological studies using unique airway tissue samples from patients with severe asthma before and during biologics treatment. My translational team of clinical, immunological and computational researchers will determine the unique features of airway resident lymphocytes and the epigenetic and transcriptional effects of biologics on circulating and airway-resident lymphocytes. We will also dissect the mechanisms involved in lymphocyte trafficking and differentiation in the airways. This will increase the understanding of human airway lymphocyte diversification, trafficking, tissue residency and differentiation in relation to biologics treatment efficacy. Our studies will reveal new targets for treatment and means to better tailor the use of biologics.
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2023
    Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) means an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer, which is thought to be caused by intestinal inflammation giving rise to cell changes and cancer. However, what role the intestinal immune system, mainly lymphocytes such as T cells and innate lymphocytes (ILCs), which I recently discovered in humans, play in this process is unclear. We intend to answer this question by collaborating with clinical researchers where we can perform advanced immunological analyzes of intestinal samples from patients with IBD and colorectal cancer, before and after therapy. We intend to study intestinal lymphocytes with single-cell techniques at both gene expression and protein level, which may reveal new subsets of lymphocytes but also differences between intestinal lymphocytes in the spectrum of healthy-inflamed-tumorous colon. Intestinal lymphocytes will then be analyzed in intestinal samples from IBD patients before and after treatment with new immunomodulatory treatments. Similarly, we will also analyze intestinal samples from patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the abdominal cavity and are being treated with chemotherapy. Our in-depth analyzes will reveal intestinal lymphocytes that may contribute to inflammation and/or cancer development in the intestine. These studies will also reveal intestinal lymphocytes that may predict or mark response to immunomodulatory therapy in IBD, and chemotherapy in metastatic CRC. This is extremely important because the right choice of effective treatment saves both individual suffering and societal costs.
  • European Research Council
    1 September 2020 - 31 August 2026
    Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) constitutes an increasing global health burden, yet effective treatments are lacking. Hampering rationale treatment strategies, the human intestinal immune system remains largely unexplored. I have made seminal contributions to the discovery and characterization of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) (Nat Immunol 2011, 2013 and 2016, Immunity 2012), revealing that in addition to antigen-specific adaptive T cells, innate equivalents play important roles in mucosal immunity. Determining the complementarity and redundancy of these two lymphocyte systems, acting in concert, is important for our understanding of inflammatory diseases and the development of novel therapies. For this proposal, I am in the beneficial position of having access to unique patient samples as well as established methods for single-cell RNA-sequencing to perform an ambitious and comprehensive molecular dissection of the human intestinal lymphocyte compartments in IBD. With this approach, I will determine parallels between known, and identify novel, subsets of tissue-resident, inflammation-associated, innate and adaptive lymphocytes. Building on this unprecedented molecular characterization, we will take on some of the most pressing clinical problems in IBD by performing longitudinal assessments of intestinal lymphocytes from IBD patients on conventional and biological treatments. As only a fraction of patients respond to treatment, this approach provides a golden opportunity to unveil immunological signatures of treatment response and drug-induced transformation of inflammation in non-responders. Furthermore, we will unfold critical disease mechanisms and reveal novel therapy targets and how they can be used to personalize treatment. In summary, my ambitious, yet feasible, proposal combines state-of-the-art technology with access to unique patient materials. My studies are likely to advance our understanding of the complex intestinal lymphocyte network in IBD.
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2020
    I, along with several other research groups, have recently discovered a new cell family in the immune system. These are called "congenital lymphoid cells" (ILC) and are found in both mice and humans. ILCs are in many ways similar to T cells, whose function can be manipulated by immunotherapy in cancer, so-called check-point blockade. In mice, ILC, like T cells, plays an important role in intestinal inflammation and the development of colon cancer. However, this is unknown in humans. Furthermore, the relationship between ILC and T cells, the way these cells are regulated by the local environment in the tumor, and the way they affect tumor growth in colon cancer are hitherto unknown. The purpose of my project is to investigate the role of congenital lymphoid cells (ILC) and their relationship to T cells in colon cancer. My hypothesis is that these cells are regulated by the environment inside the tumor and also have an active role in controlling tumor growth. Through access to unique intestinal tissue samples, I can directly study ILC and T cells that are in the malignant tissue. I can determine in detail their function and thus determine what role these cells can play in colon cancer. My research will increase the understanding of the unique and complementary ways ILCs and T cells act in tumor immunity, and the way in which these cells are regulated by the tumor, but also control tumor growth in colon cancer. The purpose of my research is to find new therapy targets, associated with the interaction between cancer cells and ILC and T cells, that can be used to treat colon cancer.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019
    Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) constitutes an increasing global health burden. Hampering rationale treatment strategies, the human intestinal immune system remains largely unexplored. I have made seminal discoveries of innate lymphoid cells (ILC) (Nat Immunol 2011, 2013 and 2016, Immunity 2012), revealing that in addition to adaptive T cells, their innate equivalents, ILC, contribute to mucosal immunity. I am in the beneficial position of having access to unique patient samples as well as established methods for single-cell RNA-sequencing and epigenetic investigations (ATAC-seq) to perform a comprehensive molecular dissection of the human intestinal lymphocyte compartments in IBD. With this approach, we will determine functional and spatial parallels between known, and identify novel, subsets of tissue-resident, inflammation-associated, innate and adaptive lymphocytes (year 1-3). Building on this unprecedented molecular characterization, we will perform longitudinal assessments of intestinal lymphocytes from treated IBD patients (year 4-5). This approach provides a golden opportunity to unveil immunological signatures of treatment response, disease mechanisms and novel therapy targets. In summary, my ambitious, yet feasible, proposal combines state-of-the-art technology with access to unique patient materials. My established team will work closely together with clinicians and other scientists to advance our understanding of the complex intestinal lymphocyte network in IBD.

Staff and contact

Group leader

All members of the group