Cutting edge research money to infection researcher

Johan Normark, infectious diseases clinician and associate professor at the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Umeå University.

ImageMattias Pettersson

We hope to improve treatment for immunosuppressed patients and strengthen their defenses against infections

The grants are awarded to three-year projects that have the potential to develop further to be nationally and internationally competitive.

"I am excited and happy that our grant proposal was approved! This means that we can further establish a collaboration we have developed between my department at Umeå University and Houston Methodist Research Institute in Texas. We have worked very hard the last few years to create clinical cohorts we can interrogate by using high-end immunological methods. It will be substantial addition to the resources we have at our disposal," says Johan Normark, infectious diseases clinician and associate professor at the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Umeå University.

Many patients today are treated with drugs that affect the immune system and especially its ability to produce antibodies. B-cell depletion is used to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer, but it also affects the body's ability to form antibodies and respond to infections and vaccines.

Johan Normark wants to understand how the immune system is regenerated after such treatment. Using advanced methodology, the researchers can analyse which specific antibodies are formed, their three-dimensional structure and the parts of the molecule that communicate with the rest of the immune system.

“We hope to improve treatment for immunosuppressed patients and strengthen their defenses against infections,” says Johan Normark.

Since 1995, the region has annually set aside funds for so-called cutting-edge research to secure access to highly specialized care in Northern Sweden, and thereby maintain university healthcare at the University hospital of Umeå.