Peter Svensson

Peter Svensson

Principal Researcher | Docent
Telephone: +46852481051
Visiting address: Blickagången 16, 14152 Flemingsberg
Postal address: H7 Medicin, Huddinge, H7 BioNut Svensson, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • The research of the group into the HIV cure field is focused on chromatin,
    and especially how transcription and chromatin states transitions
    interconnect.
    Docent (associate professor) in functional genomics at the Department of
    Biosciences and Nutrition.
    I completed my Ph.D. at Leiden University Medical Center and Uppsala
    University in 2006. After that I did a post-doc in the lab of Leona Samson at
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2010, I became a PI at Karolinska
    Institutet. Between 2015 and 2017 I was at the Gladstone Institute of
    Virology and Immunology (San Fransisco) as a Visiting scientist.

Research

  • HIV infection is a devastating disease affecting 35 million people worldwide.
    Current anti-retroviral treatment is highly effective and has made the HIV
    infection chronic. However, despite more effective treatments, the prospects
    of a cure are distant.
    The problem for an HIV cure is that, even though the virus particles are
    eradicated, the infected cells maintain the information of remake the virus.
    This information is integrated in the host cell as a provirus. The provirus
    switches between active and inactive states. Thereby, the infected cells
    evade both the immune system and death associated with massive viral
    production.
    In my lab we characterize the composition of proviral chromatin and how it
    connects with transcription and viral production. We are interested in the
    fate of the HIV-1 provirus from the time of infection until latency has
    been firmly established in resting primary CD4+T-cells. Whereas the
    proviruses encompassed in heterochromatin are refractory to activation, we
    have shown that latent proviruses with “enhancer” characteristics are
    readily activated. Our studies have provided key insights as to detect the
    remaining HIV-1 infected cells capable of reseeding the infection and the
    mechanisms whereby they are maintained.

Articles

All other publications

Employments

  • Principal Researcher, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2024-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2012

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