Research group My research is primarily focused on identifying metabolic markers for neurodegenerative diseases in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. This may increase the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, facilitate diagnostics and lead to new treatment strategies. Quantification of metabolites is performed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.
Clinical metabolomics of neurodegeneration.
Despite intense research efforts, the disease mechanisms of several neurodegenerative disorders, among them Parkinsonisms and dementia disorders, are not clearly understood and therapeutic options are severely lacking. To identify metabolite markers, affected metabolic pathways and disease mechanisms for these disorders, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) are used for metabolomic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood samples collected longitudinally from patients with Parkinsonisms and dementia. The aim is to identify and validate biomarkers for these disorders, which can potentially be translated to the clinic and future diagnosing procedures.
Fragment screening and structural biology.
Drug discovery through NMR-based fragment screening is a minor part of the research activities, where an in-house fragment library is used for screening towards various target proteins. To determine the structures and characterize the binding epitopes of proteins, two- and three-dimensional NMR spectroscopy as well as crystallography are used.
On-going research projects
Longitudinal studies of Parkinsonism
Diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) can be challenging, and especially at an early stage of the disease it is difficult to differentiate PD from the atypical Parkinsonism disorders multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
CSF and plasma samples from 186 Parkinsonism patients, taken when diagnosed, and up to 10 years after diagnosis, were obtained from the longitudinal New Parkinsonism in Umeå (NYPUM) biobank and analyzed by NMR metabolomics. Through multivariate statistical and bioinformatic analyses the metabolomes will be characterized and biomarkers for PD, MSA and PSP will be identified. This longitudinal analysis will highlight important metabolite changes during disease progression that allow analysis of both group and within-person changes, show the effect of medical treatment and identify important metabolic pathways in the pathogenesis of Parkinsonism disorders.
Pre-diagnostic biomarker study of Parkinsonism
A comprehensive metabolomics analysis of samples from PD, MSA and PSP patients, as well as from matched control individuals, is carried out with the purpose of identifying biomarkers and affected metabolic pathways of PD, MSA and PSP. This project includes plasma samples from a pre-diagnostic cohort obtained from the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study (NSHDS) and NYPUM biobanks. Targeted mass spectrometry (MS) metabolomics, using the Biocrates MxP Quant 500 kit, will quantify over 600 metabolites in 26 biochemical classes, and an extended nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) characterization of the plasma samples will quantify up to an additional 250 metabolite and lipid markers.
Metabolomics of Superagers
In this project the results from a previous metabolomics study of samples from the Betula study were reanalyzed in the context of SuperAgers. Interesting effects on the metabolic processes were identified, and these results are currently summarized in a manuscript.
