Sofia Carlsson

My research aims to expand knowledge on the causes and consequences of diabetes, with a particular focus on understudied forms such as LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults), adult-onset type 1 diabetes, and early-onset type 2 diabetes.

My work aims to expand knowledge on causes and consequences of autoimmune diabetes in adults including both LADA and type 1 diabetes and early-onset type 2 diabetes. An important cornerstone of this work is the ESTRID study (epidemiological study of risk factors for LADA-latent autoimmune diabetes in adults and type 2 diabetes) https://ki.se/en/imm/research/units-at-imm/unit-of-epidemiology/estrid, an ongoing multicenter study conducted at IMM. ESTRID is the largest and most detailed study of LADA to date and will provide unique opportunities to study the influence of both environmental and genetic factors on the disease onset and prognosis.

We also use nationwide register data and combine traditional cohort designs with family-based designs to strengthen causal inference. The overall aim of my research is to identify modifiable risk factors that can be used to prevent LADA, type 1 diabetes and early-onset type 2 diabetes and factors contributing to poor prognosis to inform secondary prevention.

I have more than 15 years of experience teaching epidemiological methods (over 1, 000 teaching hours) at Karolinska Institutet, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I served as course leader for a five-week course in Epidemiological methods within the Master’s Programme in Public Health at KI from 2013 to 2022.