Anna-Karin is Associate Professor in experimental pulmonary medicine in the group of Lung Biology.

After finishing her undergraduate studies (Master of Medicine Science in Toxicology) at Karolinska Institutet in 2002, she began her studies as PhD student in the group of Professor Sven-Erik Dahlén, Experimental Asthma and Allergy Research, at Karolinska Institutet. In 2007 she defended her thesis entitled ”Nitric Oxide and Eicosanoids: Significance and Interactions During Antigen-Induced Responses in Peripheral Lung Tissue”. She concluded that NO had a beneficial role in the peripheral lung and that nitric oxide (NO) may interact with eicosanoids, especially leukotrienes. These research findings were important since NO is produced in high levels in the exhaled air of asthmatic subjects and nowadays used as an inflammatory marker in asthma diagnosis. She also received an ERS fellowship during her PhD studies to join Professor Stefan Uhlig’s group in Lung Pharmacology at Borstel Research Center in Germany to learn the new ex vivo method Precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) for pharmacological studies of eicosanoids in distal lung compartments.

In the group of Lung Biology, her research focus on mechanisms behind pathological changes in chronic lung disorders, such as asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Today there is lack of treatment therapies that cures patients with chronic lung disorders. In her research she studies how certain inflammatory mediators such as growth factors and prostaglandins may affect cell-matrix interactions and their role in ongoing remodelling processes and regenerative capacity. The aim is to further understand underlying mechanisms in pathological remodelling processes with the goal to find new potential treatments.