NEWS The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) has this week announced the winners of its national Clinical Research Fellowship (CRF) program for 2024.
An international panel of clinical researchers has awarded the fellowships to Vanja Lunberg Wiraeus at Gothenburg University and Anne Tuiskunen Bäck at Umeå University to conduct research on immune defects of newborns and viral pathogenesis during myocarditis, respectively.
Porträtt av Vanja Lundberg Wiraeus
Image Karolina ThörnVanja Lundberg Wiraeus is an immunologist at Gothenburg University and a paediatric resident at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg, where she has been involved in treating patients with Inborn Errors of Immunity (IEI).
Following a medical degree and PhD in immunology at Gothenburg University, she focussed on setting up a translational workflow to validate genetic findings in children with IEI, a group of immune system disorders that can result in severe infections, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, allergies or even cancer.
In her MIMS CRF project, she will work with Emma Haapaniemi at the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway, University of Oslo, and assess the effectiveness of the CRISPR correction technique as a personalized treatment for patients with IEI.
Vanja says, ‘‘I am honoured to receive the MIMS Clinical Research Fellowship, which will advance our research in gene therapy for patients that suffer from serious defects in their immune system. This project aims to evaluate the efficiency of CRISPR correction technique for various T cell defects.
The MIMS Clinical Research Fellowship grant will give me the opportunity to continue my clinical practise, to see children with different IEIs and at the same time provide samples for gene correction to the lab of my collaboration partner Emma Haapaniemi. The primary goal of her lab is to develop a platform for gene correction technologies for IEIs, and the corrected cells will then be evaluated in our lab for function and safety.
As there is no specific treatment for IEI patients, the development of gene therapy is important for a patient specific therapy with less side effects’’.
Emma Haapaniemi, Group Leader. MD PhD, Oslo University Hospital:
‘‘I congratulate Vanja and excited to work on this project with her. Collaborating with Oslo University Hospital and Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg allows us to gather a sufficient number of patients, which is crucial for studying rare diseases. Our goal is to make this gene correction technique clinically available to the patients. It is great that their hospital has advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) designated for children, which is perfect for our work on corrected stem cells.
We are at a similar career stage, and Vanja’s clinical expertise combined with my research expertise brings complementary strengths to this project. I believe that our synergy will lead to significant benefits for patients. This collaboration marks the beginning of a larger, long-term effort, and we are excited about the potential impact.’’
Anne Tuiskunen lab
ImageMattias Pettersson
Anne Tuiskunen Bäck is a cardiology resident whose research centers on clinical virology and metagenomics. She completed her PhD in medicine on the Dengue virus at the Karolinska Institute and the French Forces Institute of Tropical Medicine (IMTSSA). Her current research focuses on the genetic characterization of virus isolates from patients to better understand the role of viruses in disease progression, adopting a strongly translational, bench-to-bedside perspective. In her MIMS CRF project, she will particularly investigate the genetic diversity and pathogenesis of Nephropathia Epidemica (“sorkfeber” in Swedish), caused by the Puumala virus, and viral myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle.
She will work with former MIMS Clinical Research Fellow Anne-Marie Fors Connolly to incorporate an epidemiological dimension into these studies. Additionally, she shares an interest in metagenomics with MIMS Investigator Laura Caroll at Umeå University, with whom she is engaged in ongoing discussions to explore synergies and potential collaboration.
Anne says ‘‘I am deeply grateful for the MIMS fellowship, which strengthens my ability to pursue interdisciplinary and translational research at the intersection of cardiology and virology.
One of my key projects investigates the genetic evolution of the Puumala virus in Sweden over time and space, aiming to better understand its virulence and links to human transmission, ultimately contributing to enhanced public health strategies. Another project focuses on viral myocarditis, a common cause of sudden cardiac death in young individuals, with the goal of improving diagnostics and risk prediction using biomarkers and genetic analysis.
The collaborative environment at MIMS aligns naturally with my research, and I look forward to exploring synergies with colleagues such as Anne-Marie Fors Connolly and Laura Carroll’’.
Anne-Marie Fors Connolly, Assoc. Prof. MD PhD, former MIMS CRF, Umeå University:
"I am delighted that Anne Tuiskunen Bäck received the MIMS CRF. As a former MIMS CRF, it has been extremely helpful to my career and research network to participate in the MIMS and EMBL network, and I believe that Anne will have a similar positive and beneficial experience."
I look forward to continuing my collaboration with Dr Anne Tuiskunen Bäck, from the established ongoing collaboration focusing on Puumala virus epidemiology; to the newly started collaborative initiative focusing on the risk of myocarditis following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Addressing these questions is critical for improving surveillance strategies and understanding the genetic drivers of PUUV outbreaks, and for improving diagnosis and treatment of myocarditis complications following infections."
Laura Caroll, Assoc. Prof. PhD, MIMS Investigator, Umeå University:
"I'm really excited about collaborating with Anne, particularly on some metagenomics-related projects, where we can combine our expertise in virology and bacterial bioinformatics. Viral metagenomics is a particularly hot topic right now, and Anne's subject matter expertise will be essential for these projects."
MIMS Clinical Research Fellowships provide guaranteed research time and fund the fellow’s research up to a total value of 3.2 mio SEK.
Oliver Billker, Director of MIMS, says: “We are happy to welcome two new clinical fellows to the MIMS community. Their projects bridge basic and clinical research in two important areas of medicine, which is the aim of our program. They also illustrate how opportunities arise from international collaboration in molecular medicine, which is at the core of our partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its Nordic Partnership.’’
MIMS receives funding from the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Kempe Foundations and Umeå University to foster the next generation of outstanding researchers in infection medicine. It is the Swedish node in the EMBL network, to which it is connected through the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine.