Hoping to solve the puzzle of severe status epilepticus
Ronny Wickström researches autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in the child brain. At present his focus is on prolonged cases of status epilepticus, a life-threatening condition that does not respond to epilepsy medicine. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October.
Text: Karin Tideström, for KI’s installation ceremony booklet 2025
What are you researching?
“I research inflammatory and immunological processes in the brain and nervous system in children. For example, autoimmune conditions in which the immune system wrongly attacks brain tissue, such as in autoimmune encephalitis and MS. I also study epilepsy, a disease that doesn’t always have an autoimmune pathogenesis but that can sometimes trigger a vicious cycle of inflammation and recurring episodes. In extremely severe cases, the patient can become trapped in a life-threatening, unstoppable condition called refractory status epilepticus. There is much to suggest that it’s the inflammatory mechanisms that prevent our regular epilepsy medicines from working.”
Where are the knowledge gaps?
“The immune system is meant to protect the brain from different forms of attack, but it’s a delicate balancing act. An immune response that goes too far can do more damage than good. We don’t yet know where the line is between when an immune response is helpful and when it starts to become dangerous, and this makes it hard to determine which patients to treat and when treatment should start.”
How are you going about this and what do you hope to achieve?
“My research is closely connected to my work as a consultant at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, where I meet many children with immunological and inflammatory diseases, and is done in collaboration with colleagues in Sweden and abroad. At the moment, we’re preparing the world’s first large, randomised study in which we’ll be testing two immune therapies for status epilepticus. I hope that within the next few years we’ll solve the puzzle of why refractory status epilepticus can’t be treated in the same way as other forms of epilepsy.”
About Ronny Wickström
Professor of Neuropaediatrics at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health
Ronny Wickström was born in 1970 in Stockholm. After studying medicine at Karolinska Institutet, he took his PhD in 2002 with a thesis on neuronal respiratory control in neonates. He is currently consultant at the neuropaediatric unit at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, where he also has his research group. He is chair of the Swedish Epilepsy Society and a member of the board of the NORSE Institute and the NORSE Biorepository at Yale in the USA. Ronny Wickström was appointed Professor at Karolinska Institutet on 1 January 2025.