Maria Ankarcrona

Maria Ankarcrona

Professor | Head of department
Telephone: +46852483577
Visiting address: Bioclinicum J9:20, Akademiska stråket 1, 17164 Huddinge
Postal address: H1 Neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, H1 Neurogeriatrik Ankarcrona, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • I am Professor of Experimental Neurogeriatics and study cellular mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease. I am head of the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS). I was the director of doctoral studies at NVS between 2012-2017. During the 2015-2018, I was faculty representative on the Board of Doctoral Education (FUS) and during 2019 faculty representative on the Faculty Board. These were very interesting, stimulating and important assignments. To pursue issues that I am passionate about and to be a part of developing KI is both interesting and fun. This is something that I brought with me when I took over as head of NVS, one of KI's largest departments with large assignments in research and education.

Research

  • My research focuses on mitochondrial function in Alzheimer's disease with the long-term goal of identifying new drug candidates. Of particular interest is the interaction between the endoplasmic network (ER) and the mitochondria. I have been the coordinator of a EU project (JPND / VR) where a consortium of five partners aimed to identify common and distinct disease mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease with a focus on regulation of mitochondrial function and cellular bioenergtics. As a part of project, we have identified a molecule that positively affects mitochondrial function and which we are now developing further.

Teaching

  • My educational qualifications are mainly in the postgraduate education where I have been main supervisor for five doctoral students defending their theses and is currently the main supervisor for one doctoral student. I also continuously supervise master's students in their research projects. I am responsible for the neurodegeneration part of the course Frontiers in Translational Medicine within KI's Master's program in Biomedicine and for a doctoral education course on Alzheimer's disease.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
    A large number of physiological processes are perturbed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These include damage to mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), disruption to axonal transport, perturbations to Ca2+ homeostasis and lipid metabolism, defective autophagy and finally inflammatory responses. The biological conundrum is how so many apparently disparate physiological processes are damaged collectively. Recently, work from us and others, has focused on damage to mitochondria-ER contacts (MERCS) in AD
    this is because they regulate all these damaged physiological processes.  We have identified mechanisms by which these contacts form and are regulated and shown that disrupted ER-mitochondria signaling is linked to neurodegenerative disease. Here we aim to take this work a step further and our current hypothesis is that correcting damaged ER-mitochondria signaling will correct many other downstream damaged features of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders and therefore have broad therapeutic value. The primary objectives are to identify the link between impaired ER-mitochondria interplay and onset of inflammation and synaptic dysfunction in AD. We will use novel mouse models for AD and perform in vitro (primary neurons and microglia) and in vivo experiments. Using RNA silencing techniques we will modulate the structure and function of MERCS and investigate the effects on inflammasome formation, mitochondrial function and synaptic signalling.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2022
  • JPND utlysning 2013. Cross-Disease analysis of pathways. CeBioN, Cellular Bioenergetics in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A system-based pathway and target analysis
    Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2014 - 31 December 2016
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    1 January 2013 - 31 December 2015
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2012 - 31 December 2014

Employments

  • Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2018-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2004
  • Master's degree, Biology and chemistry, Stockholm University, 1991

Leadership and responsibility assignments

  • Head of department, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2021-

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