Lectures and seminars OnkPat Friday Seminar: Tissue homeostasis of human NK cells

Host: Theodoros Foukakis, Department of Oncology-Pathology

Biography

Niklas Björkström is a Professor at Center for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet and consultant physician in clinical microbiology at Karolinska University Hospital. Björkström earned his medical and doctoral degrees at Karolinska Institutet, performed postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA, and have been a principal investigator at Karolinska Institutet since 2014. Björkström has authored >150 articles within the fields of immunology, cancer, and infection. He is an ERC Starting Grant recipient, WAF fellow, SSF Future Research Leader and has received numerous awards for his work including the Anders Jahre Award for Young Researchers and the Fernström’s award.

The main focus of his research is to understand the biology of human innate and unconventional lymphocytes in health and disease with a focus on the human liver and biliary tract system as well as the uterus. His research group is specialized in advanced immunological methods for analysis of rare populations of human immune cells in tissues.

Selected publications

Niehrs, A., Hertwig, L., Buggert, M., Nordström, I., Statzu, M., Pampena, MB., Samer, S., Knox, JJ., Strunz, B., Sun, D., Nguyen, S., Janoschka, C., Xing, Y., Wu, VH., Sparrelid, E., Alisajahbana, A., Gao, Y., Sleiers, N., Strauss, O., Filipovic, I., Ponzetta, A., Medina Andrade, I., Nilsen, V., Jorns, C., Cornillet, M., Maucourant, C., Ziegenhain, C., Hengst, J., Tweet, G., Kroll, K., Goldenm, GJ., Wedemeyer, H., Kurtuncu, M., Dori, Y., Itkin, MG., Klotz, L., Schaffer, M., Ericzon, BG., Ivarsson, MA., Paiardini, M., Nowak, G., Willinger, T., Reeves, RK., Betts, MR., Björkström NK. Transient tissue residency and lymphatic egress define human CD56bright NK cell homeostasis. Nat Immunol 2025 26:2004-2015.

Strunz, B., Ivarsson, M., Sun, D., Mayer, C., Ziegenhain, C., Crona-Guterstam, Y., Solders, M., Mölne, J., Björklund, A., Marquardt, N., Kaipe, H., Flöter-Rådestad, A., Gidlöf, S., Brännström M., Björkström, NK. Reconstitution of the uterine immune milieu after transplantation. Sci Trans Med 2025 Accepted for publication.

Bister, J., Filipovic, I., Sun, D., Crona-Gusterstam, Y., Cornillet, M., Ponzetta, A., Michaelsson, J., Brusell Gidlöf, S., Ivarsson, MA, Strunz, B., Björkström, NK. Tissue-specific non-heritable influences drive endometrial immune system variation. Sci Immunol 2024 9:eadj7168

Zimmer, CL., von Seth, E., Buggert, M., Strauss, O., Hertwig, L., Nguyen, S., Wong, AYW., Zotter, C., Berglin, L., Michaëlsson, J., Reuterwall Hansson, M., Arnelo, U., Sparrelid, E., Ellis, ECS., Söderholm, JD., Keita, ÅV., Holm, K., Özenci, V., Hov, JR., Mold, JE., Cornillet, M., Ponzetta, A., Bergquist, A., and Björkström, NK. A biliary immune landscape map of primary sclerosing cholangitis reveals a dominant network of neutrophils and tissue-resident T cells. Sci Trans Med. 2021 13:eabb3107.

Strunz, B., Bister, J., Jönsson, H., Filipovic, I., Crona-Guterstam, Y., Kvedaraite, E., Sleiiers, N., Dumitrescu, B., Brännström, M., Lentini, A., Reinius, B., Cornillet, M., Willinger, T., Gidlöf, S., Hamilton, RS., Ivarsson, MA., Björkström, NK. Continious human uterine NK cell differentiation in response to endometrial regeneration and pregnancy. Sci Immunol. 2021 6:eabb7800.