Annika Karlsson

PhD, Docent, Senior Lecturer, Group leader, Deputy Director. I obtained an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Laboratory Science, specializing within the field of clinical microbiology and immunology. Subsequently, I earned an PhD-degree in clinical virology from KI in 2000, followed by 4, 5 years as a postdoctoral fellow at Gladstone Institutes of Virology and Immunology, UCSF, San Francisco, broadening my research expertise in clinical immunology, virus-host interactions, especially virus-specific T cell responses and how genetic variability and activity of the virus and host shapes the responding T cell population. I returned to Sweden in 2005 and was appointed Associate Professor in clinical virology at Karolinska Institutet in 2009 and senior researcher/group leader in 2012. 

The research conducted in the group is currently funded by several national grants received from the Swedish Research Council, Centrum for Innovative Medicine, KI Research Foundation Grants, KI Partial funding of new postgraduate student, ALF Med, and The Swedish Physicians Against AIDS Research Foundation.

Deputy director
At the division of clinical microbiology, I was appointed deputy director in 2020, contributing my knowledge in leadership, clinical immunology and virology, and education. 

I was apointed Facility Manager of the ANA Futura BSL3 Core Facility in 2021. Department of Medicine, Huddinge  https://staff.ki.se/core-facility-for-campus-flemingsberg-ana-futura-bsl3

Education
Doctoral degree 
2000-12-15 PhD in Virology at the Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden. Title: Viral dynamics and evolution following primary HIV-1 infection. Main supervisor: Professor Anders Sönnerborg, MD, PhD.

Postdoc appointments
2007 – 2009 Assistant Professor, Postdoctoral research fellow, KI, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Solna, Sweden
2005 – 2007 Assistant Professor, Postdoctoral research fellow, The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden
2001 – 2005 Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Scientist. Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Docent - level competence
2009-09-23 Associate Professor of Virology at the Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden.

Academic honours, awards and prizes
2003 University of California San Francisco, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, Center for AIDS Research Mentored Scientist Development Award
2001 Sven Gard Stipend for Best Thesis in Virology at KI
1999 Swedish Physician Against AIDS Research Fund “Best Young Swedish Scientist in the field of HIV/AIDS”

I have extensive experience managing multiple research projects in the following areas: clinical virology and immunology, virus- and cancer-specific T cell responses, MHC-peptide-TCR interactions, antigen-specific T cell function and exhaustion in blood and tissue, transcriptional activation and regulation of T cell responses, bioinformatics, HIV pathogenesis, molecular biology, viral evolution, antiretroviral therapy, antiretroviral (drug) resistance. Using this knowledge, I have established an advanced system to conduct detailed studies of T cell pathology during acute and chronic viral infections and cancer. Internationally, I have developed a reputation in the fields of T cell induced escape and selective pressures, HIV pathogenesis, cross reactive T cells, molecular mechanisms influencing T cell function as well as in T cell immunology assays.