Jonas Svensson

I am a physician-researcher and specialist in psychiatry, working at the Brain Molecular Imaging Centre (BMIC), Department of Clinical Neuroscience, and at the memory clinic at Karolinska University Hospital. My research uses positron emission tomography (PET) and multimodal imaging to study brain aging and neurodegenerative disease, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease.

I was Principal Investigator of ERAP, an investigator-initiated pilot clinical trial of rapamycin in early Alzheimer's disease, with outcomes measured by PET, MRI and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. I am also an investigator in phase I and II PET trials at BMIC, assessing how new drugs reach the brain and engage their targets.

I received my PhD from Karolinska Institutet in 2021, on PET studies of the serotonin and dopamine systems in depression, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Neurobiology Research Unit, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, from 2021 to 2023.

Education and positions
2004: Medical degree, Umeå University
2019: Specialist in psychiatry
2021: PhD, Karolinska Institutet
2021-2023: Postdoctoral researcher, Neurobiology Research Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet
Since 2023: Senior research specialist and research physician, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
Since 2024: Specialist physician, Medical Unit Aging, Karolinska University Hospital

My research concerns biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and brain aging, with PET as the main tool.

A second line of work concerns geroprotective interventions, drugs that target the biology of aging, and how their effects can be measured with in vivo imaging in humans. The ERAP trial tested rapamycin in early Alzheimer's disease along these lines, and a randomized follow-up trial is in planning.

I also work on PET methodology: validity and reliability of quantification, sequential designs that allow clinical PET studies to stop early, and imaging-derived measures of brain age.