Thomas Gustafsson

Thomas Gustafsson

Professor/Senior Physician | Docent
Visiting address: Alfred Nobels allé 8, 14152 Huddinge
Postal address: H5 Laboratoriemedicin, H5 Klinisk Fysiologi Gustafsson, 141 52 Huddinge
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About me

  • I graduated with a medical degree from KI in 1994 and obtained a Swedish medical licence in 1997. In 2005 I received PhD degree from KI after defending my doctoral thesis on angiogenic growth factors in skeletal muscle. I became Associate Professor at KI in 2010, and since 2014 acting as the Head of the Division of Clinical Physiology at the Department of Laboratory Medicine.

    Since 2000, I have been active as a clinician at Karolinska University Hospital, currently as senior consultant at Department of Clinical Physiology. I was appointed Professor of Clinical Physiology at Karolinska Institutet on 1 January 2019.

Research

  • My research focuses on combating the increase in morbidity and mortality caused by common non-communicable diseases in humans by combining clinical parameters with physiological measurements and molecular findings from various human tissues. I try to bring preclinical and clinical researchers together when it comes to relevant scientific questions and to translate our findings from the laboratory into practice.

    One of my main research topics is the importance of skeletal muscle and the cardiovascular system for physical work capacity in health and disease, especially in situations where it has been shown to be important for function/QoL, disease progression or side effects of treatment, e.g. in aging and heart failure This may not only lead to a better understanding of the underlying processes, but also pave the way for different types of interventions

Teaching

  • I teach physiology and clinical physiology in most of Karolinska Institutet's study programs, such as for occupational therapists, biomedical analysts (with focus on physiology and laboratory medicine), physicians, physiotherapists, nurses with focus on BMA (with focus on clinical physiology) and the medical study program. I have also participated in and been responsible for various independent courses in clinical physiology. I work with student-centred learning, using elements of flipped classroom, problem-based learning and team-based learning, among others.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

Employments

  • Professor/Senior Physician, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2019-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2010
  • Doctor Of Philosophy, Karolinska Institutet, 2005
  • University Medical Degree, Karolinska Institutet, 1994

Supervisor

  • Seher Alam, 2024
  • Lisa Eriksson, 2023
  • Alen Lovric, 2021
  • Maria Joao Pires, 2020
  • Michael Melin, Physical capacity, physical activity and skeletal muscle in heart failure : studies of pathophysiology
  • Eric Rullman, Skeletal Muscle Metalloproteinase and Exercise in Humans
  • Anna Strömberg, Recruitment of circulating cells into skeletal muscle - occurrence and possible mechanisms
  • Karl Olsson, Cellular mechanisms of human muscle fatigue and disease-related loss of muscle function
  • Elisabeth Skoglund, Muscle aging and its relation to physical activity and function – longitudinal and cross sectional analysis
  • Karin Pernold, Home-cage monitoring of activity patterns of laboratory mice
  • Mirko Mandic, Blood volume expansion following supramaximal exercise : occurrence and contribution to maximal oxygen uptake
  • Mats Lilja, Effects of anti-inflammatory drugs on human skeletal muscle adaptations to resistance training
  • Helene Rundqvist, Skeletal muscle HIF-1 and exercise
  • Jessica Norrbom, Exercise and regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis factors in human skeletal muscle

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