Richard Rosenquist Brandell

Richard Rosenquist Brandell

Professor/Senior Physician

Conducts research in lymphoid malignancies using advanced techniques. Leadership of national precision medicine infrastructure. Course leader for Clinical Genetics in the Medical Program.

Visiting address: Karolinska Institutet, BioClinicum J10:20, Visionsgatan 4, 17164 Solna
Postal address: K1 Molekylär medicin och kirurgi, K1 MMK Klinisk genetik, 171 76 Stockholm
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About me

  • Candidate in KI’s academic election 2026 – the role of Dean/Vice Dean for Research

    I am writing to express my sincere interest in the position of Dean of Research at Karolinska institutet (KI). With over 25 years as a translational researcher, clinician, builder of research infrastructures, and leader of national and international collaborations, I am strongly motivated to contribute to KI’s research vision and strategic ambitions.

    As Professor of Clinical Genetics at KI and Senior Physician at Karolinska University Hospital, I have bridged scientific discovery with societal impact by leading multidisciplinary teams and translating innovations into healthcare. My research in molecular hematology, particularly chronic lymphocytic leukemia, has resulted in over 300 publications and received major national and European funding. Education and mentorship have been central to my work; I have supervised 16 PhD theses, co-supervised 12 doctoral students, and guided 12 postdoctoral researchers. In parallel, I have built national precision diagnostic/medicine infrastructures, including initiating the Clinical Genomics Facility in Uppsala, directing the SciLifeLab Clinical Genomics Platform, and currently leading Genomic Medicine Sweden, transitioning it to long-term governmental support.


    My vision as Dean is to strengthen KI’s global leadership in biomedical science by fostering a research environment that combines scientific excellence with societal relevance. I aim to support ambitious recruitment, nurture early-career researchers, and develop cutting-edge infrastructures that enable transformative science. Interdisciplinary collaboration, both within KI and with healthcare, industry, and international partners, will be central to addressing complex societal challenges. 

    I also seek to cultivate a research environment that is inclusive, responsible, and innovative, promoting integrity, diversity, and open science. Through close collaboration with the Committees for Higher Education and Doctoral Education and their deans, I aim to ensure strong alignment between research, education, and career development, creating an ecosystem where talent thrives, discoveries translate into impact, and KI continues to set the standard for research excellence.
     
    My background

    Since 2017, I serve as a Professor of Clinical Genetics at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, and a Senior Physician in Clinical Genetics at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden. I received my medical degree in 1996 and my PhD in 1998 from Umeå University, Sweden, and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Pathology in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 
     
    In 2000, I started my research group at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, Sweden, focusing on the molecular characterization of lymphoid malignancies. I became Associate Professor in Medical Genetics at Uppsala University in 2002, specialist in Clinical Genetics at Uppsala University Hospital in 2004 and was appointed Professor of Molecular Hematology at Uppsala University in 2007.
     
    I initiated and led the SciLifeLab Clinical Genomics Facility in Uppsala from 2013 to 2017 and served as Director for the Clinical Genomics Platform within SciLifeLab from 2016 to 2021. Since 2017, I have been the director of Genomic Medicine Sweden, a national infrastructure for implementation of precision diagnostics/medicine in Swedish healthcare.

Research

  • By employing a translational approach and utilizing cutting-edge molecular tools, including next-generation sequencing technologies, I have contributed to advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of lymphoid malignancies, particularly chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common adult leukemia. My studies have identified novel prognostic and predictive markers, defined new clinically relevant CLL subgroups, and significantly improved risk stratification at the individual patient level.
     
    My team has also provided compelling evidence for a role of antigens, both autoantigens and microbial antigens, in the pathogenesis of CLL. In parallel, I have built strong collaborative networks nationally, across Europe, and internationally. I am one of five founding members of a leading CLL research consortium comprising more than 50, 000 patients with CLL from over 40 academic institutions. 
     
    Through integrative multi-omics analyses, my research aims to identify key molecular aberrations at the genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic levels. By linking these alterations to disrupted signaling pathways and regulatory processes, including at the single-cell level, my team seek to uncover key molecular drivers of disease progression and treatment resistance. Ultimately, this work will enhance our understanding of CLL onset and evolution, enable the discovery of new biomarkers, and identify therapeutic targets tailored to patient subgroups, thereby advancing precision medicine in this still incurable disease.

Teaching

  • I am the course leader for the Clinical Genetics module in the tenth semester of the Medical Program. As the main supervisor for 16 completed PhD theses, co-supervisor for 12 doctoral students, and supervisor for 12 postdoctoral researchers, I have built a strong and sustained track record in research training and mentorship.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Charting the complex molecular landscape in chronic lymphocytic leukemia — the path towards precision medicine
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2026 - 1 December 2028
  • Swedish CLL Group
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2026 - 1 December 2028
  • Charting the complex molecular landscape in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: the path towards precision medicine
    Radiumhemmets Forskningsfonder
    1 January 2026 - 1 December 2028
  • Deciphering mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
    Karolinska Institutet
    1 January 2026 - 1 December 2029
  • Unravelling novel mechanisms of treatment resistance in chronic lymphocytic leukemia using single-cell spatial proteomics
    Cancer Research KI
    1 December 2025 - 1 December 2026
  • Charting the complex molecular landscape in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: the path towards precision medicine
    Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2025 - 1 December 2028
  • Charting the complex molecular landscape in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: the path towards precision medicine
    ALF Region Stockholm
    1 January 2025 - 1 December 2027
  • Multimodal explorative testing in the ON-OFF ibrutinib trial in CLL
    Science for Life Laboratory
    1 July 2024 - 1 June 2026
  • Democratising and making sense out of heterogeneous scholarly content (SciLake)
    European Union
    1 January 2023 - 1 March 2026
  • European Commission
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
  • European Commission
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2024
  • Personalised Cancer Medicine for all EU citizens
    European Union
    1 July 2022 - 1 June 2025
  • The molecular landscape of chronic lymphocytic leukemia
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2018
    Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in adults and in Sweden there are about 500 people every year diagnosed with CLL. It is a biologically and clinically very heterogeneous disease in which a third of the patients get a relatively kind disease, in one third the symptoms develop more and more, while the last third develops an aggressive disease that does not respond to treatment and where the survival time is short. Currently there is no treatment that cures CLL and there is a great need for new medications, especially for patients with advanced disease. Our strategy is that the best way to develop new medications is to identify and characterize subgroups of patients with different prognoses and different responses to treatment. We have access to a very large collection of samples from CLL patients divided into different subgroups. With the help of advanced sequencing techniques and other molecular analysis methods, we will find out which molecular mechanisms are behind poor or good prognosis or that a treatment works or not. We will also use different techniques to detect new types of drugs or groups of drugs that can improve treatment at CLL. Our goal is to identify biomarkers that can be used to predict the disease development of the individual patient, for example, the time for treatment to be inserted or total survival time. We also hope to find markers that can show whether a treatment causes the disease to go back completely or partially, or if it does not respond at all. In the long term, our results can contribute to the development of new treatments for CLL patients belonging to different subgroups and to methods to determine in advance whether a particular subgroup of patients benefit from a particular treatment, something that is not possible at present.
  • The molecular landscape of chronic lymphocytic leukemia
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2017
    Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in adults and in Sweden there are about 500 people every year diagnosed with CLL. It is a biologically and clinically very heterogeneous disease in which a third of the patients get a relatively kind disease, in one third the symptoms develop more and more, while the last third develops an aggressive disease that does not respond to treatment and where the survival time is short. Currently there is no treatment that cures CLL and there is a great need for new medications, especially for patients with advanced disease. Our strategy is that the best way to develop new medications is to identify and characterize subgroups of patients with different prognoses and different responses to treatment. We have access to a very large collection of samples from CLL patients divided into different subgroups. With the help of advanced sequencing techniques and other molecular analysis methods, we will find out which molecular mechanisms are behind poor or good prognosis or that a treatment works or not. We will also use different techniques to detect new types of drugs or groups of drugs that can improve treatment at CLL. Our goal is to identify biomarkers that can be used to predict the disease development of the individual patient, for example, the time for treatment to be inserted or total survival time. We also hope to find markers that can show whether a treatment causes the disease to go back completely or partially, or if it does not respond at all. In the long term, our results can contribute to the development of new treatments for CLL patients belonging to different subgroups and to methods to determine in advance whether a particular subgroup of patients benefit from a particular treatment, something that is not possible at present.
  • The molecular landscape of chronic lymphocytic leukemia
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2016
    Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in adults and in Sweden there are about 500 people every year diagnosed with CLL. It is a biologically and clinically very heterogeneous disease in which a third of the patients get a relatively kind disease, in one third the symptoms develop more and more, while the last third develops an aggressive disease that does not respond to treatment and where the survival time is short. Currently there is no treatment that cures CLL and there is a great need for new medications, especially for patients with advanced disease. Our strategy is that the best way to develop new medications is to identify and characterize subgroups of patients with different prognoses and different responses to treatment. We have access to a very large collection of samples from CLL patients divided into different subgroups. With the help of advanced sequencing techniques and other molecular analysis methods, we will find out which molecular mechanisms are behind poor or good prognosis or that a treatment works or not. We will also use different techniques to detect new types of drugs or groups of drugs that can improve treatment at CLL. Our goal is to identify biomarkers that can be used to predict the disease development of the individual patient, for example, the time for treatment to be inserted or total survival time. We also hope to find markers that can show whether a treatment causes the disease to go back completely or partially, or if it does not respond at all. In the long term, our results can contribute to the development of new treatments for CLL patients belonging to different subgroups and to methods to determine in advance whether a particular subgroup of patients benefit from a particular treatment, something that is not possible at present.
  • Characterization of the molecular landscape in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2015
    Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in adults and in Sweden there are about 500 people every year diagnosed with CLL. It is a biologically and clinically very heterogeneous disease in which a third of the patients get a relatively "kind" disease, in one third the symptoms develop more and more, while the last third develops an aggressive disease that does not respond to treatment and where the survival time is short. Currently there is no treatment that cures CLL and there is a great need for new medications, especially for patients with advanced disease. Our strategy is that the best way to develop new medications is to identify and characterize subgroups of patients with different prognoses and different responses to treatment. We have access to a very large collection of samples from CLL patients divided into different subgroups. With the help of advanced sequencing techniques and other molecular analysis methods, we will find out which molecular mechanisms are behind poor or good prognosis or that a treatment works or not. We will also use different techniques to detect new types of drugs or groups of drugs that can improve treatment at CLL. Our goal is to identify biomarkers that can be used to predict the disease development of the individual patient, for example the time for treatment to be inserted or survival time. We also hope to find markers that can show whether a treatment causes the disease to go back completely or partially, or if it does not respond at all. In the long term, our results can contribute to the development of new treatments for CLL patients belonging to different subgroups and to methods to predetermine whether a particular subgroup of patients benefit from a certain treatment, something that is not possible at present.
  • Characterization of the molecular landscape in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2014
    Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in adults and in Sweden there are about 500 people every year diagnosed with CLL. It is a biologically and clinically very heterogeneous disease in which a third of the patients get a relatively "kind" disease, in one third the symptoms develop more and more, while the last third develops an aggressive disease that does not respond to treatment and where the survival time is short. Currently there is no treatment that cures CLL and there is a great need for new medications, especially for patients with advanced disease. Our strategy is that the best way to develop new medications is to identify and characterize subgroups of patients with different prognoses and different responses to treatment. We have access to a very large collection of samples from CLL patients divided into different subgroups. With the help of advanced sequencing techniques and other molecular analysis methods, we will find out which molecular mechanisms are behind poor or good prognosis or that a treatment works or not. We will also use different techniques to detect new types of drugs or groups of drugs that can improve treatment at CLL. Our goal is to identify biomarkers that can be used to predict the disease development of the individual patient, for example the time for treatment to be inserted or survival time. We also hope to find markers that can show whether a treatment causes the disease to go back completely or partially, or if it does not respond at all. In the long term, our results can contribute to the development of new treatments for CLL patients belonging to different subgroups and to methods to predetermine whether a particular subgroup of patients benefit from a certain treatment, something that is not possible at present.

Employments

  • Senior Physician in Clinical Genetics, Medical Unit Clinical Genetics and Genomics, Karolinska University Hospital, 2017-
  • Professor/Senior Physician, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-
  • Professor of Molecular Hematology, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 2007-2017
  • Senior Physician in Clinical Genetics, Uppsala University Hospital, 2007-2017
  • Professor/Senior Physician, Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, 2010-2012
  • Research position 50% (funded by the Swedish Cancer Society), Uppsala University, 2005-2006
  • Senior Physician in Clinical Genetics, Uppsala University Hospital, 2004-2006
  • Postdoc researcher, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 1999-2005
  • Specialist training in Clinical Genetics, Uppsala University Hospital, 1999-2004
  • Postdoc, Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, 1998-1999
  • Internship, Umeå University Hospital, 1997-1999

Degrees and Education

  • Specialist in Clinical Genetics, Uppsala University Hospital, 2004
  • Associate Professor in Medical Genetics, Uppsala University, 2002
  • License to practice, Umeå University Hospital, 1999
  • PhD in Pathology, Umeå University, 1998
  • Medical degree, Umeå University, 1996

Leadership and responsibility assignments

  • Co-chair, Precision Omics Initiative Sweden (PROMISE), Karolinska Institutet, 2024-
  • Course leader, Clinical Genetics module in the Medical Program, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-
  • Director, Genomic Medicine Sweden, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-
  • Platform Director, SciLifeLab Clinical Genomics platform, Science for Life Laboratory, 2016-2021
  • Facility Director, SciLifeLab Clinical Genomics Uppsala, Uppsala University, 2013-2017
  • Lead physician, Cancer genetics, Uppsala University Hospital, 2005-2012

Distinction and awards

  • "Årets läkemedelsprofil", 2025
  • Networker of the Year - by the Swedish Network Against Cancer, 2022
  • Wallenberg Clinical Scholar, 2017
  • Uppsala County Council Research Prize, 2013
  • European Hematology Association Fellowship, 2006
  • Uppsala Fernström Prize, 2005

Supervision

  • Supervision to doctoral degree

    • Fatemah Rezayee, 2025
    • Cecilia Arthur, 2023
    • Svea Stratman, 2021
    • Mattias Mattsson, 2020
    • Emma Young, 2017
    • Sujata Bhoi, 2017
    • Fredrik Baecklund, 2017
    • Panagiotis Baliakas, 2016
    • Diego Cortese, 2016
    • Ann-Charlotte Bergh, 2016
    • Viktor Ljungström, 2016
    • Markus Mayrhofer, 2015
    • Nicola Cahill, 2012
    • Lesley Ann Sutton, 2012
    • Anna Margret Halldorsdottir, 2011
    • Rebeqa Gunnarsson, 2010
    • Norafiza Zainuddin, 2010
    • Afsaneh Roshanai, 2010
    • Millaray Marincevic, 2010
    • Marie Sevov, 2010
    • Arifin Kaderi, 2010
    • Maria Norberg, 2010
    • Ingrid Thörn, 2009
    • Fiona Murray, 2008
    • Emma Flordal Thelander, 2007
    • Sarah Walsh, 2004
    • Gerard Tobin, 2004
    • Mia Thorsélius, 2004

Committee work

  • Chair, Prioritization committee (BIOIII), Barncancerfonden, 2023-
  • Member, Steering group of Vision Zero Cancer, 2023-2024
  • Member, Steering group of Testbed Sweden Precision Health Cancer, 2022-
  • Member, Committee for Research, Karolinska Institutet, 2020-2026
  • Member, Steering group of the PREDICT infrastructure, Umeå University, 2020-
  • Member, Nobel Assembly, Karolinska Institutet, 2019-
  • Member, Education Board, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-
  • Member, Research Education Board, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-2021
  • Chair, Research and education group at Medical Unit Clinical Genetics and Genomics, Karolinska Institutet, 2017-
  • Member, Steering group of the Center for Translational Genomics (CTG), Lund University, 2017-
  • Member, Prioritization committee (BIOIII), Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund, 2015-
  • Member, Nordic CLL Group, 2015-
  • Member, Prioritization committee for Young Investigator Award, Swedish Cancer Society, 2008-2014
  • Member, Department Board, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 2008-2010
  • Member, Prioritization committee (PkD), Swedish Cancer Society, 2007-2012
  • Member, Steering board of the Swedish CLL group, 2004-
  • Other, Secretary, Swedish CLL Group, 2004-2010

Visiting research fellowships

  • Postdoc, University of Frankfurt, 2002-2003

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