Claudia Kutter

Claudia Kutter

Principal Researcher
Telephone: +46852482819
Visiting address: Tomtebodavägen 23A (Gamma4), 17165 Solna
Postal address: C1 Mikrobiologi, tumör- och cellbiologi, C1 SciLife Kutter, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I received my PhD from the University of Basel, Switzerland. During my PhD, I worked on small RNA-mediated regulation of stem cell differentiation at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (Basel, Switzerland). As a postdoctoral researcher, I jointed Cancer Research UK and the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK) to study the evolution of noncoding RNAs using next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods. In 2016, I became a SciLifeLab and Wallenberg fellow at Karolinska Institutet, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology. I am leading my independent research group at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) in Stockholm (Sweden).

Research

  • Deciphering genome functionality

    Cells do not exist in one form and adapt quickly, especially in response to metabolic changes. My group studies how this reversible cell phenotype is controlled by a sophisticated entwined interaction between RNA (long noncoding, transfer and small RNAs) and RNA-binding proteins with a particular focus on liver diseases (from fatty liver to liver cancer). We have developed and used experimental and computational multi-omics approaches (bulk and single cell genomics, transcriptomics, CRISPR technology combined with cell-based assays) to understand the differences between healthy, reversible, and diseased liver cell phenotypes. Our long-term goal is to integrate RNA and their regulators in biomedical research not only for diagnosis and prognosis but also for therapeutic purposes.

    Conference organiser

    EMBO workshop "RNA: Structure meets Function"

    Transposon symposium

    EpiChrom

    SciLifeLab seminar series

    SciLifeLab science prize

Teaching

  • BSc/MSc course

    Methods and Concepts in Molecular Life Sciences

    MSc courses

    Genomics for Biomedical scientist: Handle your gene expression data

    Molecular Techniques in Life Science

    Bioinformatics

    Frontiers in Translational Medicine

    PhD courses

    Genomics for Biomedical scientist: Handle your gene expression data

    Non-coding RNAs, microRNAs and their role in human diseases

    The future of medicine: the role of "chance" in development, evolutionary adaptation and diseases

    Mechanisms of gene regulation in metabolism

    Molecular immunology: noncoding RNAs

    The epigenome: a platform for the integration of metabolic and signaling pathways in development and on the path to diseases

    Epigenetics and its applications in clinical research

Selected publications

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2027
    Deciphering new links between genotype and phenotype of healthy and diseased cells is an intense area of investigation. The genetic regulation by RNA, termed riboregulation, is essential to maintain cellular homeostasis, coordinating cell plasticity and preventing malignant cell transformation throughout the human lifespan. However, the impact of riboregulation in controlling these cellular processes remains largely unknow. We argue that RNA binding proteins (RBPs) govern these processes. Our proposed study aims to fill current knowledge gaps in riboregulation by (1) comprehensively characterizing RBP-RNA interactions at the physiological and pathological level in liver, (2) understanding cellular and molecular defects of RBP-mediated RNA processing in reversible and irreversible liver diseases and (3) deciphering underlying mechanisms of riboregulation to advance biomedical research. To successfully explore and expand this promising research area of riboregulation, we designed an integrative multiomics study based on our unique preliminary data. Altogether, our study will generate new insight into how riboregulation is altered in pathological cell stages. We envision that our findings provide targets for treatment and may open new possibilities in the development of innovative RNA-based therapeutics.
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2023
    Liver cancer is common and only a few patients are still alive a year after diagnosis. Despite the growing number of patients and the high mortality, options for early diagnosis and treatment are still limited. This is because we still lack knowledge of how the cancer cell uses the genetic material to cause cells to grow abnormally. By analyzing data from many patients with liver cancer, my group has recently identified new regulators that affect the growth of cancer cells. These regulators have previously been overlooked because they assume new roles in cancer, which previous research did not consider. These new key regulators are called RNA-binding proteins (RBPs). These proteins control how the genetic material (RNA) is used. We have developed new experimental and specific bioinformatic methods to understand the mechanisms behind how RBP gives rise to different RNA molecules in liver cancer. We will map how the different RBP-RNA pairs contribute to liver cancer, change their amounts in the cancer cell and observe differences in cell growth and treatment response. Gaining more knowledge about the control of our genetic material is crucial to meeting an important challenge in cancer research. By exploring the mechanisms by which RBPs and RNAs interact in cancer
    and how these interactions differ from those in normal cells, we can gain knowledge that can be applied not only to cancer diagnosis and prognosis but also to developing strategies for more targeted cancer cell therapy. This would be a powerful addition to existing methods.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 November 2019 - 30 November 2019
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 November 2018 - 30 November 2018
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
    1 July 2008 - 31 July 2010

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