Group
Our Story
It all started with a microscope, didn’t it?
The initial focus was on studying host-bacteria interactions with advanced microscopy. Over the years, our discoveries have led us to establish three main areas of research: antibody function during infection, cell migration in infection and cancer, and the development of new microscopy technology.
Lab members
Pontus Nordenfelt
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer
Ph.D. Cell biology and Microbiology/ Immunology
M. Sc. Chemical Engineering
Interests: Antibodies, Integrins, Phagocytosis, Cell migration, Host-pathogen interactions, Microscopy, Image analysis
“I believe in finding a scientific question that truly intrigues me, and then push whatever technology is needed to address the question adequately.”
Member of Sweden’s Young Academy www.sverigesungaakademi.se
Martin Sundwall
Lab manager
M.Sc. Molecular Biology
Projects: integrin biosensors, complement-mediated phagocytosis, bacterial adhesion, antibody generation and characterization
“My primary task in the Nordenfelt lab is to make sure that our everyday work runs smoothly. My area of research includes molecular biology, where the focus lies on cloning and genomic editing of bacteria and eukaryotic cells. I´m a part time PhD student where my projects focuses in the adherence properties of Streptococcus pyogenes and my current main focus is on antibody discovery, production and characterization “
Berit Olofsson
Associate Researcher
Ph.D. Biomedicine
M.Sc. Biotechnology
Projects: epIgG
“EpIgG is a collaboration between five research groups with the aim of studying the involvement of immunoglobulins in infectious diseases. My position is shared between these five groups. In the Nordenfelt lab I am responsible for the production, purification and characterization of immunoglobulins with the help of adherent as well as suspension cells. The antibodies are then used in functional assays, physiological models and other downstream applications within epIgG .”
Therese de Neergaard
PhD Student
M.D
Projects: method to quantify phagocytosis, immune response during invasive group A streptococcal infection
“In my research, I am focusing on quantifying different host-pathogen interactions using phagocytosis as an interaction model. I love to gain new knowledge and to expand my horizon and as a PhD-student my aim is to learn the principles of research, both clinical and pre-clinical.”
Vibha Kumra Ahnlide
PhD Student
M.Sc. Physics
M.D
Projects: antibody binding model, super-resolution microscopy, high resolution image quantification
“I believe interdisciplinary research is capable of driving innovation and developing solutions to complex issues. As a Ph.D. student at Nordenfelt lab, I hope to contribute to the knowledge of the field by combining my experience as a physicist and medical student. My main biological focus is the function of antibodies in bacterial infections.”
Oscar André
Post-Doc
Ph.D Biomedicine
M.Sc. Biomedicine
Projects: systems microscopy of host-pathogen interactions, image analysis
“In my work, I primarily develop new imaging strategies and analysis pipelines for data-driven microscopy. Currently studying single-cell interactions between bacterial pathogens and host cells, as well as cancer cell migration on 2D surfaces.”
Sebastian Wrighton
PhD Student
M.D
Projects: IgA, host-pathogen interactions
”My current research focuses on host-pathogen interactions between the human humoral immune response and the bacterial pathogen group A streptococcus. Other projects deal with studying antibody class switching and phagocytosis.”
Johannes Kumra Ahnlide
PhD Student
M. Sc. Eng
Projects: Population-wide single-cell image analysis for prediction of cell behavior, Software development for analysis of high dimensional data
“My research revolves around predicting how properties of cells and cell populations evolve over time as well as developing software to extract these properties from e.g. microscopy images. I’m passionate about programming languages and approaches to abstraction in software. I use Julia, Elixir and Elm for developing open source as well as internal software.”
Arman Izadi
PhD Student
M.D. student
Projects: Role of IgG subclasses in mediating immune functions against S.pyogenes, role of IgG3 and the influence of constant domains in anti-Sars-CoV-2 antibodies
“I´m interested in how complex interactions on protein-level leads to homeostasis but also diseases which I see in the hospital. Currently my research focuses on antibodies- a field which Will dominate future medicine. As a future MD I strongly believe in cross-profession collaboration between preclinical and clinical researchers to advance the field to higher boundaries. My aspiration is to be a link in that important collaboration as a clinical MD but with a PhD in antibody research.”
Kesavan Subburam
Post-Doc
PhD
Projects: Information processing in cells
“In my PhD, I’ve worked on DNA damage responses in the context of changes to chromatin compaction states as measured with fluorescence anisotropy imaging. By inducing local damage with a laser, I’ve observed global dynamics in the nucleus. Since then I’m largely interested in biological information processing and develop tools and techniques to capture a wide range of information from cellular systems with the tools of microscopy. I aim to use advanced custom microscopy systems with open source control software to capture biological events across scale in very high spatiotemporal resolution and use tools of complex systems to understand emergence of living systems.”
Karl Johansson
Post-Doc
PhD
Projects: Phenoprint
“My project focuses on harmonizing microscopy data. I want to develop a phenotype fingerprint (or phenoprint) from sample images that compresses all basic data into a convenient heatmap. If this was applied to microscopy images, data from different labs could be compared in a much more stringent and valuable manner.”
Defne Yanartas
Master student
Projects:Systems serology
“My master’s thesis is focused on investigating the immune responses against Streptococcus pyogenes using systems serology.”
Axel Hultqvist
Master student
Projects: Exploring the function and potential applications of dual-Fab antibodies
The project I am pursuing in the Nordenfelt lab concerns the interplay between the humoral response and the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes. The primary emphasis is on exploring the roles and potential implications of a newly identified bacterial-antibody interaction known as dual-Fab cis binding. As an MSc student, I aspire to further expand both my theoretical and practical knowledge in the field.
Alumni: Wael Bahnan (Senior scientist), Arsema Hailu (Research engineer), Filip Berg (M.sc), Joseph Issa (M.sc), Suxxun Pan (PhD-student), Anupam Das (Post-doc), Max Heurgren (MSc student)