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Björn Önfelt

Profile picture of Björn Önfelt

Professor

Details

Works for

BIOPHYSICS

Unit address
Tomtebodavägen 23 A

Researcher

Researcher ID

About me

I am Professor of Applied Physics and lead a multidisciplinary research group at the Science for Life Laboratory. Our main research interests are to understand basic functions of immune cells, in particular natural killer (NK) cells and T cells, and how we can translate that knowledge into efficient immunotherapy. 

I have a MSc in Chemistry (1997) from Gothenburg University, and a PhD in Physical Chemistry (2002) from Chalmers University of Technology. Between 2003-2006 I did a postdoc combining Immunology and Photonics at Imperial College London, UK. In 2006 I started as an independent researcher at the department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet before being recruited to a Future Faculty position at Applied Physics, KTH in 2007. I became Docent 2011 and Professor 2016. Since 2006 I have maintained my affiliation to MTC, KI.

Short research description 

We use microchip techniques for live cell imaging and screening to characterize immune response at the single cell level. T cell and natural killer (NK) cells have remarkable abilities to mediate targeted attack against virus-infected or malignant cells. In adoptive cell therapy these qualities are used to treat primary malignancies, life-threatening virus infections or leukemic relapses after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although this therapy has shown promising results we have only a remote understanding of how to utilize T and NK cells to their full potential. A major challenge is to select and prepare cells that mediate anti-tumor effects without causing life-threatening side effects such as graft versus host disease. By better understanding of how populations of NK cells and T cells are built up by individual cells with varying capacity to respond to stimuli we will be able to improve current methods for immunotherapy. 

Selected Publications

·    B Vanherberghen, P. E. Olofsson, E. Forslund, M. Sternberg-Simon, M. A. Khorshidi, S. Pacouret, K. Guldevall, M. Enqvist, K-J. Malmberg, R. Mehr, B. Önfelt. (2013) Classification of human natural killer cells based on migration behavior and cytotoxic response. Blood, 121(8), 1326-1334

·   K. Guldevall, L. Brandt, E. Forslund, K. Olofsson, T. Frisk, P. E. Olofsson, K. Gustafsson, B. Vanherberghen, O. Manneberg, H. Brismar, K. Kärre, M. Uhlin and B. Önfelt. (2016) Microchip screening platform for single cell assessment of NK cell cytotoxicity, Front. Immunol7:119.

·   D. Sarhan, L. Brandt, M. Felices, K. Guldevall Guldevall, T. Lenvik, J.M. Curtsinger, E.D. Warlick, S.R. Spellman, B. R Blazar, D.J. Weisdorf, S. Cooley, D.A. Vallera, B. Önfelt and Jeffrey Miller. (2018) 161533 TriKE restores NK cell dysfunction mediated by Myeloid-derived suppressor cells in Myelodyspastic patients Blood Advances2(12):1459-1469

·   K. Srpan, A. Ambrose, A. Karampatzakis, M. Saeed, A.N.R. Cartwright, K. Guldevall, G. D. S. Cruz De Matos, B. Önfelt and D.M. Davis. (2018) Shedding of CD16 Disassembles the NK Cell Immune Synapse and Boosts Serial Engagement of Target Cells. J. Cell Biol.217(9):3267-3283

·   K. Olofsson, V. Carannante, M. Ohlin, T Frisk, K. Kushiro, M. Takai, A. Lundqvist, B. Önfelt and M. Wiklund. (2018) Acoustic formation of multicellular tumor spheroids enabling on-chip functional structural imaging. Lab on a Chip 18(16):2466-2476


Courses

Degree Project in Applied Physics, Second Cycle (SK202X), examiner

Laboratory techniques in Life Sciences (SK2536), examiner, course responsible, teacher

Photography for Media (SK1140), examiner, course responsible, teacher

Profile picture of Björn Önfelt

Publications

Publication list