Apostolos Bossios

Apostolos Bossios

Principal Researcher | Docent
Visiting address: Nobels väg 13, 17177 Solna
Postal address: C6 Institutet för miljömedicin, C6 Lung- och luftvägsforskning Bossios, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

    • Associate Professor (Docent) of Respiratory Medicine
    • Senior Consultant Respiratory Physician at Karolinska University Hospital.
    • Principal Researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Unit of Lung and Airway Research.
    • Research group leader at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Unit of Lung and Airway Research.
    • Research Group Leader at the Center for Molecular Medicine

Research

  • I am a respiratory physician-scientist, balancing active clinical practice with clinical and translational research on airway diseases, particularly severe asthma and bronchiectasis.

    I consider laboratory and clinical work to be closely interconnected, each contributing to the overarching mission of improving patient care.
    My research aims to bridge the gap between clinical manifestations and the underlying inflammatory and immunological mechanisms driving these conditions. By uncovering these connections, we strive to advance understanding and improve outcomes for patients living with complex airway diseases.
    Currently, my work includes clinical studies characterizing patients with severe asthma, bronchiectasis, and COPD. In parallel, my basic and translational research focuses on the role of T-regulatory cells in modulating airway inflammation, with the goal of identifying novel pathways for therapeutic intervention.

Teaching

  • I actively participate in medical education at the graduate and post-graduate levels. 

    Teaching  at the graduate level for medical and dental students  and the 
    post-graduate level for nurses at  Karolinska Institutet.

    PhD supervisor

    On-going

    • Pia Ghosh, MD,   Karolinska Institutet. Principal supervisor
    • Sara Barsch, Karolinska Institutet.Co-supervisor.


    Completed

    • You Lu, M.D., PhD 2011, Gothenburg University, Principal Supervisor.
    • Carina Malmhäll, Ph.D. 2014, Gothenburg University, Co-supervisor.
    • Stig Hagstad, MD, PhD. 2015, Gothenburg University, Co-supervisor.
    • Berne Eriksson, MD, PhD, 2017, Gothenburg University, Co-supervisor.
    • Elza Evren M.Sci. , PhD 2022, Karolinska Institutet, Co-supervisor.
    • Valentyna Yasinska, MD, PhD, 2023, Karolinska Institutet, Co-supervisor.
    • Yuanyan Wang, MD, PhD. 2025, Karolinska Institutet. Co-supervisor.
    • Lorenz Wirth Ph.D. 2025, Karolinska Institutet.Co-supervisor.
    • Yitao Gong, PhD 2025, Karolinska Institutet.Co-supervisor.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2027
    Bakgrund: Severe asthma includes a heterogeneous group of patients that accounts for a large share of the related morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. A new treatment approach focuses on identifying and addressing specific, treatable traits with targeted interventions. Bronchiectasis, a common comorbidity in severe asthma, shares symptoms like dyspnea, wheezing, chronic cough, and sputum production, making it difficult to distinguish between the two conditions when they coexist. The cellular immunopathology in severe asthma and bronchiectasis is comparable. For instance, both pathologies involve neutrophilic and eosinophilic chronic inflammation with a probable role of Th17 and Th2 signaling. Among T cells, T regulatory cells (Tregs) are crucial in downregulating this inflammation, and we, among others, have produced data suggesting an important role in asthmatic inflammation as well. Notably, Tregs and Th17 have a common origin. Tregs can resolve inflammation and prevent it from becoming chronic. We hypothesize that patients with severe asthma and bronchiectasis have a diminished and defective Treg population, where bacteria may also play a role, affecting the Treg /Th17 balance and their function. Aim: The project's overall goal is to characterize the role of Tregs in the underlying inflammation of patients with severe asthma with the comorbidity of bronchiectasis. Workplan: Patients with severe asthma, bronchiectasis, or both disorders will be recruited from a specialized outpatient clinic and undergo clinical characterization during stable disease and bacterial infections, as well as evaluation of their oral flora. Systemic and airway Treg phenotype and function will be evaluated using several approaches. Significance: The expected results will increase our understanding of the role of Tregs in the underlying airway inflammation in severe asthma and the comorbidity of bronchiectasis. This understanding may identify novel target mechanisms for diagnosis and therapies that involve Tregs that may help prevent the development of bronchiectasis.
  • Severe Asthma with bronchiectasis – exploring the role of regulatory T cells.
    The Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2025 - 31 December 2027
  • Understanding the role of diabetes and bronchiectasis as sub-phenotypes in severe asthma.
    Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2026
    Biomass burning for cooking and heating produces a toxic cocktail of particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants, resulting in chronic lung issues. Around 0.5-0.6 million deaths occur annually in India, mainly in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, from exposure to indoor air pollutants, indicating the multifaceted healthcare, economic and environmental burden in households, where biomass burning prevails. And yet, ground-based indoor exposure data are sparse, there is poor awareness about air pollution, and clean energy initiatives are lagging. We hypothesize that biomass combustion and PM exposure is related to specific pollutant classes (triggers) and their synergistic interactions, which trace early metabolic changes in plasma to diagnose asthma, lung aging, and chronic pulmonary obstructions. We aim to 1) conduct socioeconomic and health surveys and develop real-time indoor pollutant monitoring using automated sensor networks, 2) analyze organic compounds and oxidative metals that cause pulmonary stress, and 3) identify novel biomarkers in plasma and combine this with integrative transcriptomics, epidemiological and environmental chemical data. The proposed synergistic and integrated work packages on PM characteristics and metabolomics will establish causality with exposure posing a breakthrough for early clinical diagnosis. This strategy will help healthcare measures and mitigation plans advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 7 for better air quality and health.
  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Unfolding treatable traits of obesity and Bronchiectasis as sub-phenotypes in severe asthma.
    Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2021
  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2020

Employments

  • Principal Researcher, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2021

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