Erik Sundström

I am a senior scientist in the Deparment of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, division of neurogeriatrics. Together with Dr. Xiaofei Li I lead a research group addressing research questions in neuroscience, focusing on the role of stem and progenitor cells.

I am the manager of the KI core facility Developmental Tissue Bank, a service for research groups exploring human prenatal development or requiring human prenatal tissue for other research purposes.

The main research interest is neural stem and progenitor cells, their potential use as treatments and the possible role they have in disorders and diseases. After trauma to the central nervous system (NCS), the brain and spinal cord, nervous tissue is damages and permanently lost, leading to functional consequences. One strategy to improve functions is to replace the tissue with implants of stem/progenitor cells that can differentiate into the cell types that are lost, i.e. stem cell therapy. My focus is spinal cord injuries, in particular the so-called post-traumatic syringomyelia, a condition in the chronically injured spinal cord characterized by expanding intraspinal cysts, adding disabilitating symptoms to the ones already present after the spinal cord injury. We can reverse this deleterious process by implanting appropriate types of neural stem/progenitor cells. We are now investigating the mechanisms of the treatment effect.

The interest in human stem cell therapy also led us into research on the control of stem cells in situ, i.e. in the developing human CNS. In collaboration with research groups at KI, SciLifeLab and Stockholm University this is not part of the Human Cell Atlas/Human Developmental Cell Atlas. In this ongoing project we reveal mechanisms of cellular differentiation and maturation, which we believe we can utlize to further improve the cell therapy.

In our work on human CNS development we identified interesting parallels (and differences) to so called cancer stem cells in ependymomas, an aggressive type of pediatric CNS cancers. The cancer stem cells are tumor cells that are particularly difficult to target with anti-tumor drugs, and probably also spread the tumor. We are now pursuing this line of research in order to identify possible therapeutic targets for more effective treatments with less side effects.

My main teaching interest is the research education. During more than 20 years I was director of the KI-Region Stockholm Clinical Research School in Molecular Medicine, a research education program for clinical PhD students. I have also organized several recurrent postgraduate courses in neuroscience as well as courses in dementia for foreign MDs. Finally, between 2018 and 2024 I was the director of research education at the NVS department.