Research Translational Vascular Medicine
We are dedicated to translational research on novel therapeutic and diagnostic targets for the management of peripheral vascular disease, specifically atherosclerosis and restenosis complications. We utilize innovative, integrated multi-omics in silico pipelines for exploration of large human vascular disease biobanks with an aim to identify mechanisms and smooth muscle cell related targets that stand in direct causal relationship to human vascular disease.
To this end, we have been developing large biobank resources for vascular disease studies, e.g. the Biobank of Karolinska Endarterectomy (BiKE, est 2002), Biobank of lower limb Peripheral Arterial Disease (BiKPAD, est 2025), Biobank of Karolinska Smooth Muscle Cells (BiKSMC, est 2024) and Biobank of Rat Carotid Artery injury (BiRCA, est 2012). Target discovery using these biobanks is followed by phenotyping, challenge and proof-of-concept interventional studies in murine vascular injury and disease models, as well as in vitro studies using primary human vascular cells. We operate a fully equipped animal lab at the KMB premises, holding top-level expertise in vascular microsurgery, drug delivery, longitudinal non-invasive follow-up, etc. We also have expertise in complex immunopathological studies of human vascular tissues, functional and mechanistic cell culture studies and differentiation protocols, etc.
With this multi-disciplinary approach, our mission is to create a powerful platform for extrapolation of fundamental research results into the various realms of clinical cardiovascular disease coupled to innovation, leading to accelerated development from target discovery to patient treatment.