Tessa Schillemans

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS). My current research is focused on chronic pain and cardiovascular disease. We are using several large Swedish cohort and register databases to investigate associations of self-reported musculoskeletal pain or pain diagnoses such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis and cardiovascular outcomes. We are furthermore interested in the underlying molecular mechanisms related to chronic pain, particularly the involvement of the gut microbiome. Thus, we include omics datasets such as the gut microbiome, metabolites, proteins and genes. 

My background is in molecular biology and molecular mechanisms of disease, which I studied in the Netherlands. During my studies, I became fascinated with epidemiology and interdisciplinary research. This led me to persue my PhD at the Unit of cardiovascular and nutritional epidemiology at the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) in Karolinska. My PhD research investigated the impact of a group of environmental pollutants, called perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), on cardiovascular disease. We included multi-omics datasets such as genetics, proteins and metabolomics to gain insight in potential underlying mechanisms that linked PFAS exposures to cardiometabolic disturbances. I successfully defended my thesis on the 23rd of March 2024. After my PhD, I continued to work in research as a postdoctoral researcher.