Petter Höglund

Petter Höglund

Professor/Senior Physician | Head of department
Telephone: +46852482914
Mobile phone: +46705596201
Visiting address: , Huddinge/Stockholm
Postal address: H7 Medicin, Huddinge, H7 HERM Höglund, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • Head of Department/prefekt at the Department for Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) and research Group Leader for Immunological tolerance and transfusion immunology at HERM, KI.

    I am a professor of basic immunology, especially clinically applied cell therapy and transplantation, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge. I moved here in 2011, after two decades working as a scientist at the Karolinska Campus in Solna.

    I gained my PhD in 1993 at the Department of Tumor Biology, Karolinska Institutet, KI and I finished my medical training in 1996. From 1996 to 1999, I worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC), Strasbourg, France.

    In 1999, I was awarded the Young Investigator Award by the Cancer Research Institute in the USA, and received the Swedish Society of Medicine's young senior research fellow prize in 2001. In 2003, I became associate professor (docent) in immunology at KI and from 2011, obtained my professorship.

    During the period 1999-2010 I conducted research at MTC, KI, with funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundations, the Swedish Cancer Society, Vetenskapsrådet, Karolinska Institutet and the Karolinska University Hospital. My main research interests are the regulation of Natural Killer (NK) cell specificity.

    Academic honours, awards and prizes
    Appointed Professor of basal immunology, especially clinically applied cell therapy and transplantation at Karolinska Institutet in 2011.

Research

  • NK cells (natural killer cells) are a type of lymphocyte that is considered part of the non-adaptive immune system and can recognize and kill virus-infected cells and cancer cells. When the immune system recovers after a stem cell transplantation, NK cells can contribute to important anti-cancer effects in patients with leukaemia - a reaction called Graft-versus-Leukaemia (GvL).

    One of my research aims is to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern the formation of NK cells in the body. We are particularly interested in how NK cell are “educated” in vivo, how they learn to distinguish self from non self and which mechanisms that regulate the responsiveness of NK cells. More recently, my group has also started to expore the role of NK cells s immune barriers to blod and platelet transfusions in patients.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
    1 January 2021 - 31 December 2021
  • Transfusion treatment of leukemia patients: predictors of transfusion outcome and immunological consequences of chronic transfusion dependence.
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2018
    Patients with leukemia often need transfusions with blood and platelets in order not to suffer from anemia or bleeding. Many leukemia patients are transfusion dependent already at diagnosis and even more are developing transfusion dependent as the disease progresses. Many patients also require transfusions to cope with curative treatments such as stem cell transplantation. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about what governs transfusion dependence and what factors are decisive for how individual patients respond to transfusion treatment. These issues are the focus of this project. In the first part of the project, we study stem cell mutations in leukemia patients and how they affect the frequency of transfusion with red blood cells. In this section, we are also investigating how these mutations affect the risk of developing alloantibodies to the transfused red blood cells. The second part examines how different blood donor and blood bag properties affect transfusion outcomes, and in the third part, the transfusion of platelets is studied and the question of the removal of HLA class I on the platelets makes the platelets survive better in patients with HLA antibodies. This is a highly translational project with great potential to increase understanding of what governs the transfusion pattern in leukemia patients. It aims to optimize the transfusion treatment and thus reduce the suffering of the patients. Another aim of the project is to develop new transfusion treatments for patients who do not respond to transfusions. If these are successful, it can in a very short term improve the situation for many patients who today cannot be treated optimally.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 June 2017 - 30 June 2017
  • Molecular and clinical studies of the development and function of NK cells.
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2017
    NK cells protect us from viral infections but also contribute to the defense against tumor emergence and tumor spread, especially in leukemia patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation or other cell therapy. We study the importance of MHC class I molecules and of the growth factor IL-15 for the development of NK cells in mice. This development process is important for the ability of NK cells to distinguish leukemia cells from normal cells. We also study NK cells and other immune cells in patients with leukemia and and patients who receive transfusion with bodily platelets to link molecular knowledge from mouse studies to treatment of people with cancer. The project aims to identify the molecular mechanisms that govern the education of NK cells in the body. The strength of the project is the genetically defined basic research models we developed over a number of years, but we also collaborate with clinics for parallel research on patients with leukemia. Such a translational approach we hope will give us clues to a deeper understanding of the biological relationships that exist between the immune system's development and its function in tumor diseases. The purpose of our research is to understand the basic relationships between how NK cells develop into the body and their ability to recognize and kill leukemia cells. The research is focused on elucidating molecular interactions both on the cell surface and within the cell. The goal is to ultimately try to utilize the knowledge to find new drugs that improve survival and quality of life in patients with leukemia and other tumor diseases.
  • Molecular and clinical studies of the development and function of NK cells.
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2016
    NK cells protect us from viral infections but also contribute to the defense against tumor emergence and tumor spread, especially in leukemia patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation or other cell therapy. We study the importance of MHC class I molecules and of the growth factor IL-15 for the development of NK cells in mice. This development process is important for the ability of NK cells to distinguish leukemia cells from normal cells. We also study NK cells and other immune cells in patients with leukemia and and patients who receive transfusion with bodily platelets to link molecular knowledge from mouse studies to treatment of people with cancer. The project aims to identify the molecular mechanisms that govern the education of NK cells in the body. The strength of the project is the genetically defined basic research models we developed over a number of years, but we also collaborate with clinics for parallel research on patients with leukemia. Such a translational approach we hope will give us clues to a deeper understanding of the biological relationships that exist between the immune system's development and its function in tumor diseases. The purpose of our research is to understand the basic relationships between how NK cells develop into the body and their ability to recognize and kill leukemia cells. The research is focused on elucidating molecular interactions both on the cell surface and within the cell. The goal is to ultimately try to utilize the knowledge to find new drugs that improve survival and quality of life in patients with leukemia and other tumor diseases.
  • Molecular and clinical studies of the development and function of NK cells.
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2015
    NK cells protect us from viral infections but also contribute to the defense against tumor emergence and tumor spread, especially in leukemia patients who have undergone stem cell transplantation or other cell therapy. We study the importance of MHC class I molecules and of the growth factor IL-15 for the development of NK cells in mice. This development process is important for the ability of NK cells to distinguish leukemia cells from normal cells. We also study NK cells and other immune cells in patients with leukemia and and patients who receive transfusion with bodily platelets to link molecular knowledge from mouse studies to treatment of people with cancer. The project aims to identify the molecular mechanisms that govern the education of NK cells in the body. The strength of the project is the genetically defined basic research models we developed over a number of years, but we also collaborate with clinics for parallel research on patients with leukemia. Such a translational approach we hope will give us clues to a deeper understanding of the biological relationships that exist between the immune system's development and its function in tumor diseases. The purpose of our research is to understand the basic relationships between how NK cells develop into the body and their ability to recognize and kill leukemia cells. The research is focused on elucidating molecular interactions both on the cell surface and within the cell. The goal is to ultimately try to utilize the knowledge to find new drugs that improve survival and quality of life in patients with leukemia and other tumor diseases.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2013 - 31 December 2015
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2012 - 31 December 2016

Employments

  • Professor/Senior Physician, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2023-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2003
  • University Medical Degree, Karolinska Institutet, 1997

Leadership and responsibility assignments

  • Head of department, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 2021-

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