About Professor Ola Hermanson

We are interested in the development of the brain in health and disease, in particular brain regions involved in social, emotional/affective and cognitive processes. We are specifically interested in molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of stem cell and progenitor characteristics and differentiation into functional neurons and other cell types. To investigate these topics, we use advanced molecular techniques, including genome-wide analyses of chromatin, and the most relevant cell types, involving translational collaborations with clinicians.

Our activities can be divided into three main, overlapping branches:

1) Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of stem cell state and fate to generate functional systems for repair of a damaged nervous system, for example after surgery, and increased understanding of psychiatric disease.

2) Transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of tumor cell and cancer-derived stem cell state and fate, especially in glioma and medulloblastoma.

3) Biomedical engineering and studies of microenvironment (see, e.g., Biomaterials, 2007; 2009; 2012) to provide novel approaches for stem and cancer cell biology and clinical applications in regenerative medicine.

We participate actively in several networks of neuroscience, cancer, bioengineering, stem cells, and regenerative medicine. In addition, we are dedicated fans of basic science and are involved in many outreach activities.

Please see also: http://ki.se/en/neuro/hermanson-laboratory

5 Selected Publications

Bečanović, K., Nørremølle, A., Neal, S.J., Kay, C., Collins, J.A., Arenillas, D., Lilja, T., Gaudenzi, G., Manoharan, S., Doty, C., Beck, J., Lahiri, N., Portales‐Casamar, E., Warby, S.C., Connolly, C., De Souza, R.A.G., REGISTRY Investigator of the European Huntington’s Disease Network, Tabrizi, S.J., Hermanson, O., Langbehn, D.R., Hayden, M.R., Wasserman, W.W., and Leavitt, B.R. (2014) A human SNP in the HTT promoter alters NF‐ĸB binding and is a bidirectional genetic modifier of Huntington disease. Nat. Neurosci., in press.

Blumenthal NR, Hermanson O, Heimrich B, Shastri VP. Stochastic nanoroughness modulates neuron-astrocyte interactions and function via mechanosensing cation channels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Nov 11;111(45):16124-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1412740111. Epub 2014 Oct 27.

Castelo-Branco G, Lilja T, Wallenborg K, Falcão AM, Marques SC, Gracias A, Solum D, Paap R, Walfridsson J, Teixeira AI, Rosenfeld MG, Jepsen K, Hermanson O. Neural stem cell differentiation is dictated by distinct actions of nuclear receptor corepressors and histone deacetylases.Stem Cell Reports. 2014 Sep 9;3(3):502-15. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2014.07.008. Epub 2014 Aug 28.

Dias JM, Ilkhanizadeh S, Karaca E, Duckworth JK, Lundin V, Rosenfeld MG, Ericson J, Hermanson O, Teixeira AI. CtBPs sense microenvironmental oxygen levels to regulate neural stem cell state.Cell Rep. 2014 Aug 7;8(3):665-70. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2014.06.057. Epub 2014 Jul 31.

Füllgrabe J, Lynch-Day MA, Heldring N, Li W, Struijk RB, Ma Q, Hermanson O, Rosenfeld MG, Klionsky DJ, Joseph B. The histone H4 lysine 16 acetyltransferase hMOF regulates the outcome of autophagy.Nature. 2013 Aug 22;500(7463):468-71. doi: 10.1038/nature12313. Epub 2013 Jul 17.

Awards, Fellowship and Honours

2001       Fernström’s award for young investigators, Linköping
1998-99  Swedish Brain Foundation award
1995       FEBS/SFBM award and lecture