Marie Wahren-Herlenius

About me

• Professor of Experimental Rheumatology, Karolinska Institutet
• Head, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (prefekt@meds.ki.se)
• International experience as postdoc/visiting scientist/visiting professor from University of Bergen, Norway, University of Tokyo, Japan and Harvard Medical School, USA
• Recieved the Göran Gustafssons prize in Medicine, the Nanna Svartz prize for Rheumatologic research, Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology's prize for rheumatologic research, the IMID-prise for research on immune-mediated inflammatory disease from the Swedish societies of dermatology, rheumatology and gastroenterology
• Awarded Best abstract of the year by the Swedish Rheumatology Association (three times)
• Theses from my group awarded Best PhD thesis of the year by the Swedish Rheumatology Association (three times)
• President, The Scandinavian Society for Immunology 2010-2015
• President, Junior Faculty, Karolinska Institutet 2002-2005
• President, PhD student's association, Karolinska Institutet 1991

Research description

Our research is focused on autoimmune rheumatic diseases, and aims at understanding the pathogenesis and disease mechanisms for development of novel diagnostics and treatment. Our projects include basic cell and molecular biology, studies in experimental models as well as clinical and epidemiological patient-based investigations. The research group includes around 15 scientists from basic and clinicial disciplines.

Selected publications:

Ro/SSA autoantibodies directly bind cardiomyocytes, disturb calcium homeostasis, and mediate congenital heart block.
Salomonsson S, Sonesson SE, Ottosson L, Muhallab S, Olsson T, Sunnerhagen M, et al
J. Exp. Med. 2005 Jan;201(1):11-7

Loss of the lupus autoantigen Ro52/Trim21 induces tissue inflammation and systemic autoimmunity by disregulating the IL-23-Th17 pathway.
Espinosa A, Dardalhon V, Brauner S, Ambrosi A, Higgs R, Quintana FJ, et al
J. Exp. Med. 2009 Aug;206(8):1661-71

Maternal MHC regulates generation of pathogenic antibodies and fetal MHC-encoded genes determine susceptibility in congenital heart block.
Strandberg LS, Ambrosi A, Jagodic M, Dzikaite V, Janson P, Khademi M, et al
J. Immunol. 2010 Sep;185(6):3574-82

Variants at multiple loci implicated in both innate and adaptive immune responses are associated with Sjögren's syndrome.
Lessard CJ, Li H, Adrianto I, Ice JA, Rasmussen A, Grundahl KM, et al
Nat. Genet. 2013 Nov;45(11):1284-92

Immunopathogenic mechanisms of systemic autoimmune disease.
Wahren-Herlenius M, Dörner T
Lancet 2013 Aug;382(9894):819-31

NCR3/NKp30 contributes to pathogenesis in primary Sjogren's syndrome.
Rusakiewicz S, Nocturne G, Lazure T, Semeraro M, Flament C, Caillat-Zucman S, Sène D, Delahaye N, Vivier E, Chaba K, Poirier-Colame V, Nordmark G, Eloranta ML, Eriksson P, Theander E, Forsblad-d'Elia H, Omdal R, Wahren-Herlenius M, Jonsson R, Rönnblom L, Nititham J, Taylor KE, Lessard CJ, Sivils KL, Gottenberg JE, Criswell LA, Miceli-Richard C, Zitvogel L, Mariette X
Sci Transl Med 2013 Jul;5(195):195ra96

Development of autoantibodies against muscle-specific FHL1 in severe inflammatory myopathies.
Albrecht I, Wick C, Hallgren Å, Tjärnlund A, Nagaraju K, Andrade F, Thompson K, Coley W, Phadke A, Diaz-Gallo LM, Bottai M, Nennesmo I, Chemin K, Herrath J, Johansson K, Wikberg A, Ytterberg AJ, Zubarev RA, Danielsson O, Krystufkova O, Vencovsky J, Landegren N, Wahren-Herlenius M, Padyukov L, Kämpe O, Lundberg IE
J Clin Invest 2015 Dec;125(12):4612-24

Pathogenesis of the Novel Autoimmune-Associated Long-QT Syndrome.
Yue Y, Castrichini M, Srivastava U, Fabris F, Shah K, Li Z, Qu Y, El-Sherif N, Zhou Z, January C, Hussain MM, Jiang XC, Sobie EA, Wahren-Herlenius M, Chahine M, Capecchi PL, Laghi-Pasini F, Lazzerini PE, Boutjdir M
Circulation 2015 Jul;132(4):230-40

H1N1 vaccination in Sjögren's syndrome triggers polyclonal B cell activation and promotes autoantibody production.
Brauner S, Folkersen L, Kvarnström M, Meisgen S, Petersen S, Franzén-Malmros M, Mofors J, Brokstad KA, Klareskog L, Jonsson R, Westerberg LS, Trollmo C, Malmström V, Ambrosi A, Kuchroo VK, Nordmark G, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2017 Oct;76(10):1755-1763

European families reveal MHC class I and II associations with autoimmune-mediated congenital heart block.
Kyriakidis NC, Kockum I, Julkunen H, Hoxha A, Salomonsson S, Meneghel L, Ebbing C, , Dilthey A, Eronen M, De Carolis S, Kiserud T, Ruffatti A, Kere J, Meisgen S, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2018 09;77(9):1381-1382

Clinical associations and expression pattern of the autoimmunity susceptibility factor DIORA-1 in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome.
Aqrawi LA, Mentlein L, Meneghel L, Björk A, Thorlacius GE, Ivanchenko M, Ramírez Sepúlveda JI, Skarstein K, Kvarnström M, Brauner S, Espinosa A, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2018 12;77(12):1840-1842

Comorbidity and long-term outcome in patients with congenital heart block and their siblings exposed to Ro/SSA autoantibodies in utero.
Mofors J, Eliasson H, Ambrosi A, Salomonsson S, Skog A, Fored M, Ekbom A, Bergman G, Sonesson SE, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2019 05;78(5):696-703

Increased risk of multiple myeloma in primary Sjögren's syndrome is limited to individuals with Ro/SSA and La/SSB autoantibodies.
Mofors J, Björk A, Smedby KE, Kvarnström M, Forsblad-d'Elia H, Magnusson-Bucher S, Eriksson P, Mandl T, Baecklund E, Nordmark G, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2020 02;79(2):307-308

Learning from similarities between vaccine responses and SLE.
Wahren-Herlenius M, Rönnblom L
Nat Rev Rheumatol 2020 07;16(7):355-356

Environmental factors in the pathogenesis of primary Sjögren's syndrome.
Björk A, Mofors J, Wahren-Herlenius M
J Intern Med 2020 05;287(5):475-492

Natural killer cells and type II interferon in Ro/SSA and La/SSB autoantibody-exposed newborns at risk of congenital heart block.
Ivanchenko M, Thorlacius GE, Hedlund M, Ottosson V, Meneghel L, Björkander S, Ossoinak A, Tingström J, Bremme K, Sverremark-Ekström E, Gemzell-Danielsson K, Sonesson SE, Chemin K, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2021 02;80(2):194-202

Auxilin is a novel susceptibility gene for congenital heart block which directly impacts fetal heart function.
Meisgen S, Hedlund M, Ambrosi A, Folkersen L, Ottosson V, Forsberg D, Thorlacius GE, Biavati L, Strandberg L, Mofors J, Ramskold D, Ruhrmann S, Meneghel L, Nyberg W, Espinosa A, Hamilton RM, Franco-Cereceda A, Hamsten A, Olsson T, Greene L, Eriksson P, Gemzell-Danielsson K, Salomonsson S, Kuchroo VK, Herlenius E, Kockum I, Sonesson SE, Wahren-Herlenius M
Ann Rheum Dis 2022 08;81(8):1151-1161

Genome-wide association study identifies Sjögren's risk loci with functional implications in immune and glandular cells.
Khatri B, Tessneer KL, Rasmussen A, Aghakhanian F, Reksten TR, Adler A, Alevizos I, Anaya JM, Aqrawi LA, Baecklund E, Brun JG, Bucher SM, Eloranta ML, Engelke F, Forsblad-d'Elia H, Glenn SB, Hammenfors D, Imgenberg-Kreuz J, Jensen JL, Johnsen SJA, Jonsson MV, Kvarnström M, Kelly JA, Li H, Mandl T, Martín J, Nocturne G, Norheim KB, Palm Ø, Skarstein K, Stolarczyk AM, Taylor KE, Teruel M, Theander E, Venuturupalli S, Wallace DJ, Grundahl KM, Hefner KS, Radfar L, Lewis DM, Stone DU, Kaufman CE, Brennan MT, Guthridge JM, James JA, Scofield RH, Gaffney PM, Criswell LA, Jonsson R, Eriksson P, Bowman SJ, Omdal R, Rönnblom L, Warner B, Rischmueller M, Witte T, Farris AD, Mariette X, Alarcon-Riquelme ME, , Shiboski CH, , Wahren-Herlenius M, Ng WF, , Sivils KL, Adrianto I, Nordmark G, Lessard CJ
Nat Commun 2022 07;13(1):4287

Education

• PhD, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet 1994
• Medical Degree, Karolinska Institutet 1995
• Docent of Molecular Immunologi 1999
• Licensed physician 2000