Sara Hägg

Sara Hägg

Senior Lecturer | Docent
Telephone: +46852482236
Visiting address: ,
Postal address: C8 Medicinsk epidemiologi och biostatistik, C8 MEB II Hägg, 171 77 Stockholm
Part of:

About me

  • Associate Professor (Docent) in molecular epidemiology at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet.

    Education

    • PhD in Computational Biology, Linköping University, 2009
    • MSc in Molecular Biology, Stockholm University, 2003
    • BSc in Computer Science, Stockholm University, 2003

    Postdoc

    • Genetic epidemiology, Medical epidemiology and biostatistics (MEB), KI, 2011-2014
    • Molecular epidemiology, Department of medical sciences, Uppsala University, 2013-2014

    Sabbatical

    • Stanford University School of Medicine, 2016

Research

  • My main research interest is human biological aging. How to measure it in human cohorts, understanding causal pathways in aging and identify geroprotectors to repurpose for age-related diseases. Markers of human biological aging can be telomere length, epigenetic clocks, functional aging, frailty index, etc. I study such markers in longitudinal data from several twin studies of aging (SATSA, GENDER, HARMONY, OCTO-Twin, TwinGene) within the Swedish Twin Registry and also using UK biobank data and many other Swedish cohorts. Methods that I use include longitudinal modelling, causal analyses using drug target Mendelian Randomization, and large-scale genome-wide approaches. For a more detailed description of my current research please visit my project page A geroscientifc approach to study human biological aging.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2026 - 31 December 2029
    The causes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remain largely unknown. While large-scale genetic studies are beginning to identify OCD risk genes, it is equally important to identify non-heritable risk factors, as some may be modifiable. The discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design is ideally suited to determine whether non-heritable factors are in the causal pathway to OCD while controlling for genetic and shared environmental effects. OCDTWIN is the first cohort of MZ twin pairs discordant for OCD. In Aim 1 (years 1-3), we will recruit at least 80 discordant MZ twin pairs (45 pairs already recruited) through the Swedish and Danish Twin Registries, collecting biological specimens (blood, saliva, urine, stool, hair, nails), MRI scans, and leveraging the phenylketonuria biobank for biological material collected at birth. Data on early-life environmental exposures (e.g., perinatal complications) are available from national registers. In Aim 2 (years 4-5), we will conduct within-pair comparisons to identify post-zygotic mutations and environmentally mediated biological processes contributing to OCD. In Aim 3 (years 4-5), we will relate within-pair differences in brain phenotypes to brain epigenetic mechanisms, using recently available epigenetic atlases. By the end of this project, we anticipate significant progress in our understanding of OCD aetiology. The OCDTWIN biobank will become a global resource, enabling researchers to test novel hypotheses as new methods emerge.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2026
    The increasing number of older people being disabled by aging threatens the sustainability of the health systems. Thus, there is an urgent need to counteract aging-induced disabling conditions as muscle wasting. The proposed project is based on longitudinal observations across the lifespan of adults in a cohort born in 1956/58 (SPAF-1958). This cohort has been followed from age 16 to 63 years using objective measures of physical performance, physical activity, and lifestyle variables at four time points, available and skeletal muscle biopsies (at 27 and 63 years) and blood samples (at ages 52 and 63 years). The SPAF-1958 cohort provides a unique opportunity to detect longitudinal changes, i.e., individual trajectories, thus elucidating the preclinical and clinical course of sarcopenia and revealing underlying factors at the individual level. In the proposed study, measurements will be repeated at age 67 years since it is reasonable to shorten the intervals between follow-ups as the effects of aging increase with time. A unique feature of the current study as individuals enter early-aging, is the combination of analyses of neurogenic components. This includes examination of motor and sensory nerve conduction, number of motor units combined with measurements of muscle mass and quality by MRI and muscle tissue morphology and gene expression from biopsies. The current study may also add information about biological aging biomarkers in blood and individual genetic makeup.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2027
    Due to global aging, Alzheimer´s disease and related dementias (ADRD) are increasing in the population. No disease-modifying treatment currently exists, but recent advances in the field suggest multifactorial processes may be at play. Hence, it will be important to find specific disease characteristics of ADRD for prevention and treatment strategies in line with precision medicine initiatives. Therefore, the overall aim of this 5-year project is to provide individualized risk predictions, prevention and prognosis of ADRD.In aim 1, we will use a large cohort of biobanked samples linked to Swedish registers (AMORIS), UK Biobank and the Swedish Twin Registry to identify individuals at risk of ADRD. Variables used will be biological age, polygenic risk scores, APOE genotype, metabolic profile, cognition, age, sex and ADRD subtypes. In aim 2, using the same data, we will apply pharmaco-epidemiology to study if individuals at risk of ADRD benefit from preventive treatment with repurposed drugs in clinical trials for ADRD. In aim 3, we will use a clinical cohort of geriatric patients from the Stockholm region to analyze if patients with ADRD have better prognosis using these drugs.A postdoc and PhD-student will be recruited and two biostatisticians, a geriatrician, pharmaco-, and aging-epidemiologists collaborate. The project will advance our understanding of individualized treatments for ADRD and could guide future dementia strategy regarding primary prevention.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2022
    Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women and one in eight will be affected at some point in their lives. The risk also increases with increasing age. When you age, biological changes occur in the body at the cellular level, which are believed to be connected with an increased risk of tumor growth. It has previously been shown that people who have faster biological ageing, i.e. a higher biological age than people of the same age, have an increased risk of a number of age-related diseases, including breast cancer. However, research in this area is limited and more studies are needed to better understand the relationship between biological age and breast cancer. Our project will study the relationship between biological age and risk of breast cancer. We will use epidemiological data and methods, as well as various estimates of biological age, and find out how the risk of future breast cancer may change depending on the aging process. In the project, we have access to population-based cohort data such as KARMA (Swedish National Breast Cancer Study) and UK Biobank. The analyzes will be adjusted for other risk factors for breast cancer such as chronological age, lifestyle factors, information about menstruation, number of children, hormone treatment, mammography, etc. With our research, we want to increase understanding of how biological aging can be connected to the risk of developing breast cancer. In particular, we will find out whether the current prediction models for breast cancer can be improved by adding measures of biological age. Currently, calls for mammography examinations are made according to chronological age, but biological age would be a better measure to distinguish individuals with an increased risk of developing breast cancer. In the long run, we therefore hope that our project can contribute to optimizing prevention and treatment for breast cancer.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2025
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2025
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2023
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2020 - 31 December 2022
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2017 - 31 December 2019
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2016 - 31 December 2019
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    1 January 2016
    The Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Ageing (SATSA) is an internationally renowned prospective cohort study that was established in the 1980ies to longitudinally investigate the psychobiological determinants of normative and pathological ageing. By integrating data from self-report questionnaires and blood specimens that have been sampled in this study since 1992, the present research proposal is concerned with the identification and characterization of the epigenetic markers of general and internalizing psychopathological symptomatology (henceforth referred to as depressive mood) during late adulthood.In order to pursue these goals, Dr. Sara Hägg (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden) invited me to investigate the longitudinal association between according symptoms and the epigenom in the SATSA as a visiting fellow. An according research stay in Dr. Häggs laboratory is currently scheduled from August 2016 until December 2016, and is supposed to achieve the following aims:(A) Exploratory and confirmatory identification of epigenetic markers that are predictive of the manifestation of general psychopathology and its subsidiary factors with a particular focus on depressive mood.(B) Separation of the predictive epigenetic variance into components that are attributable to common genetic effects, as well as common and unique environmental effects, which is enabled by the twin design of the SATSA.(C) Investigation of the temporal dynamics (i.e. the individual stability and cross-lagged impact) of epigenetic markers towards psychopathological symptomatology, and vice versa, which is enabled by the longitudinal sampling protocol of the SATSA.Besides conventional approaches to the analysis of high-dimensional omics data, the outlined research aims will be adressed using different statistical models, that enable the proper quantification of intraindividual stability and variability of epigenetic markers.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2013 - 31 December 2016

Employments

  • Senior Lecturer, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 2023-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2015

Leadership and responsibility assignments

Supervision

  • Supervision to doctoral degree

    • Karolina Gustavsson, Muti-omics of aging and risk for dementia, 2024-
    • Bowen Tang
    • Katalin Vincze
    • Sara Licaj

Committee work

Editorial work

Other expert reviewer/evaluation assignment

  • Evaluator of research applications in national competition, Swedish Research Council, 2024
  • Expert reviewer in appointments of academic positions, University of Oulu, 2024
  • Evaluator of research applications in national competition, Public Health panel, Academy of Finland, 2023
  • Expert reviewer in appointments of academic positions, Evaluator for fellowship, Medical Research Council, 2023
  • Expert reviewer of research applications, Different panels, National Institute on Aging, 2018

Conference/event participation

News from KI

Events from KI