Robert Harris

Robert Harris

Professor | Academic vice president

I have worked with strategic leadership development at KI within research and education for 20 years, lead a top-performing research group and have an internationally-recognized profile as academic le

Telephone: +46852486260
Visiting address: L8:04, CMM Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset Solna, 17176 Stockholm
Postal address: K8 Klinisk neurovetenskap, K8 Neuro Harris, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • Candidate in KI's academic election 2026 – assignment as Dean/Pro-Dean for Research

    I have worked with strategic leadership development at Karolinska Institutet for over 20 years, spanning both research and education. I currently lead a highly productive and internationally competitive research group and have established an internationally recognized profile as an academic leader, researcher, and educator. I am motivated to apply for the role of Dean of Research in order to contribute at an institutional level to strengthening both the quality of research and the research culture at KI.

    Karolinska Institutet must continue to be an attractive destination for leading researchers and maintain its position as Sweden’s foremost research-intensive medical university. Achieving this requires a coherent and forward-looking strategy for modernizing and enhancing the effectiveness of our research environment. This includes building on recent initiatives in areas such as advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) and precision medicine. I am keen to contribute to this work by leading the Committee for Research and by further developing research leadership across the university.

    Over several years, I have initiated and implemented quality assurance processes that have provided a robust and internationally recognized foundation for KI’s doctoral education. These processes are widely regarded as representing best practice. My leadership approach combines creativity with implementation capacity, and I am accustomed to making well-considered decisions. I also initiated the routine of annual outreach from KI leadership to departments, with the aim of systematically engaging with prefects and researchers to understand their priorities and challenges. I consider structured dialogue with stakeholders to be essential for effective and sustainable strategic decision-making within the Committee for Research.

    A core priority for me is to strengthen the role of researchers as academic leaders. At present, KI lacks a comprehensive and transparent system for academic career development, and I believe that the Committee for Research should take responsibility for developing such a framework. Supporting early- and mid-career researchers is increasingly critical in a highly competitive global research landscape, and KI has a responsibility to provide strong intellectual, infrastructural, and organizational support. Our ambition should be that KI is recognized as an institution that actively supports its researchers throughout their careers, both during their time at KI and beyond.

    The conditions for postdoctoral researchers at KI have historically received limited strategic attention. I have therefore maintained long-standing dialogue with Junior Faculty and KIPA and recently presented a five-point action plan for postdoctoral researchers to the Faculty Board. I view the implementation of this plan as a natural responsibility for the incoming Committee for Research.

    Another longstanding challenge concerns the alignment of ethical and administrative frameworks between clinical research conducted at Karolinska University Hospital and KI. This issue has implications for the continued academic development of healthcare, which is essential for life science and precision medicine initiatives. I am committed to working collaboratively with relevant stakeholders to identify sustainable solutions that support high-quality clinical research.

    In recent years, a growing number of highly successful research group leaders—including several ERC grant holders—have chosen to leave KI. At the same time, increased global competition from newly established research-intensive universities underscores the need for a clear and comprehensive research development strategy. Addressing researcher retention and international competitiveness should therefore be a central task for the Committee for Research in its work for the Faculty Board. My long-term vision is that KI should be the first choice internationally for basic and clinical molecular life science research, supported by a set of coordinated and evidence-based strategies.

    Finally, diversity and internationalization within academic leadership remain areas for development at KI. Increasing representation of non-Scandinavian backgrounds and ensuring the effective implementation of the bilingual language policy are important components of institutional attractiveness and inclusivity. An effective Dean of Research must also serve as a strong international representative for KI. I have extensive experience leading international delegations and hosting visiting delegations, and I communicate fluently in both English and Swedish. I consider these skills to be an integral part of my contribution to the role of Dean of Research.

    Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological Diseases 2013-present

    Academic Vice-President of Doctoral Education 2019-present

    Chairperson International Advisory Council 2020-2023

    President of ORPHEUS doctoral education organization 2014-2022

    Professor Robert A. Harris (Bob) was born in Harpenden in Southern UK in 1966. He conducted a Bsc.Hons undergraduate degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic, majoring in Parasitology in 1987. PhD studies at University College London studying innate immune agglutinins in Schistosoma host snail species with Terry Preston and Vaughan Southgate as supervisors culminated with a thesis defence in early 1991. A 2.5 year postdoc at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in Paul Kaye’s research group ensued, with focus on understanding the intracellular fate of Leishmania spp. protozoans in macrophages. Bob was awarded a Wellcome Trust postdoctoral fellowship that permitted his relocation to the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) in the spring of 1994. A postdoc period was spent split between the labs of Anders Örn and Tomas Olsson, in which he studied Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma bruceii protozoan proteins. Bob became an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute in 1999, heralding his establishment as a PI. Bob started to work with autoimmune diseases in 1996 and began study of therapy using live parasite infections or parasite molecules. His research group has developed autoantigen-specific vaccines, defined the effects of post-translational biochemical molecules on autoantigenicity and developed a macrophage adoptive transfer therapy that prevents pathogenesis in several experimental disease models. He became Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological Diseases in 2013.

    Education
    University Education
    BSc (Hons) Biology - Upper Second Class Portsmouth Polytechnic, UK 1987

    PhD Training
    ’Haemolymph proteins and the snail immune response’ University College London, UK 1991

    Karolinska Institutet's pedagogy prize 2014

    FEBS Education Award 2024

Research

  • We are primarily interested in understanding the pathogenesis of incurable, chronic disease states of the Central Nervous System, including ALS, MS, Alzheimer's disease and glioma brain tumors.

    HOW CAN WE TREAT OR CURE THE DISEASES? There is currently no cure for the diseases we study, and existing medications are only partly effective.

    Our main interest is thus on developing new strategies to reduce or abrogate disease symptoms.

    We focus on using the body’s own myeloid cells as a means of treating the same individual through ‘personalised cell therapy’ or by targeting these cells for immunomodulation.

Teaching

  • Central Director of Doctoral studies at Karolinska Institutet 2008-2018

    Director of Doctoral studies at Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Karolinska Institutet 2005-2018

    Awarded Karolinska Institutet’s Pedagogy Prize 2014

    144 publications and 6 reviews – Web of Science h index = 45 Google Scholar H index = 52, i index = 95 (as of 2025)

    Currently receives research funding from Swedish Medical research Council, CancerFonden, Alltid Litt Sterkere, Ulla Carin Lindquist Stiftelse and Karolinska Institutet

    Currently supervises 2 PhD students, co-supervises 5 PhD students, 2 Postdoctoral Fellows and one undergraduate student

    Courses taught at a postgraduate level:
    - High Performance Chromatography Methods - Applications in Analysis of Biologically Significant Molecules (Chile)
    - Trypanosomiasis and Lesihmanisasis protozoan infection biology (Stockholm University)
    - I IUIS Course “Infections & Immunology: Views Towards the XXI Century” (Chile)
    - Molecular Immunology (KI)
    - Cellular and Molecular Infection Biology (KI)
    - Winter Immunology School (KI)
    - Summer School in Immunology, “Translational Medicine in the field of Autoimmunity” (KI)
    - New Vaccines – advances in current vaccinology (KI)
    - Clinical and Experimental Neuroimmunology (KI)
    - Cytokines in inflammation (KI)
    - Basic Immunology (KI)
    - Neurovirology (KI)
    - Immune, Gene and Cell therapy (KI)
    - Translational Medicine (Germany)

    Courses taught at an undergraduate level:
    - Medical Microbiology and Immunology
    - Experimental and Clinical Neuroimmunology
    - Immunological mechanisms in autoimmune diseases
    - Tropiska parasiter och svenska
    - Eukaryot mikrobiologi
    - Basic Immunology - Macrophages

    Leadership courses for faculty:
    - Introduction course for PhD students at KI
    - Basic course for supervisors at KI
    - Advance course in pedagogy for supervisors at KI
    - Future Academic Leaders at KI

    Workshops:
    -Conflict prevention, management and resolution
    - Intended Learning Outcomes - formulation and examination
    - Professional responsibility as a PhD supervisor


    These teaching activities are primarily conducted at locally at KI, but also both nationally in Swedish universities as well as internationally.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2025 - 31 December 2028
    Autoimmune diseases represent a class of conditions resulting from anomalous responses of the immune system, that mistakenly attacks healthy parts of the body. More than 80 conditions have been classified as autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, affecting up to 10% of the population. A promising immunotherapy of such diseases is the use of tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDCs). Dendritic cells (DC) are key regulators of the adaptive immune system: DC can be polarized towards tolDCs, restraining inappropriate autoreactive responses such as those observed in autoimmune diseases. Conventionally, tolDCs are generated ex vivo from isolated autologous DC cultured with the disease autoantigen and tolerogenic agents. In this project, we will develop a new biomaterial able to generate tolDCs in the patient directly in vivo, leading to a drastic reduction in the therapy cost. We will do this through an injectable hydrogel able to recruit DC at the site of implantation, and then deliver to those DC nanoparticles containing mRNA encoding the disease autoantigen, and siRNAs as tolerogenic agents. Thanks to the use of mRNA, this platform can be easily scaled and adapted to different diseases in a patient-specific manner. Central to this approach will be the use of new immunologically silent polymeric nanoparticles, able to efficiently deliver RNA to dendritic cells without the inherent immunogenicity of conventional lipid particles used in RNA therapeutics.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2024 - 31 December 2027
    This proposal builds on multi-disciplinary data describing abnormal synaptic pruning as a mechanism in schizophrenia (SZ). So far, increased expression of the SZ risk gene coding for complement component 4A (C4A) has been shown to contribute to excessive microglial engulfment of synaptic structures in patient-derived SZ models, while protein levels of C4A are elevated in first-episode SZ patients. However, the mechanistic understanding of the molecular events that leads to activity-dependent synapse elimination by microglia, and other glia cells, is largely incomplete due to the lack of adequate experimental models. This has complicated the identification of suitable drug targets and stalled the highly needed clinical studies using novel or repurposed compounds in SZ. Here, we propose a novel and unique integrated experimental and clinical approach - linked on subject level and supported by humanized in vivo models - to identify suitable drug targets for modifying glial synapse elimination in SZ. Using state-of-the-art organoid models combined with high-resolution single cell transcriptomic profiling we aim to identify cell types and mechanisms contributing to excessive pruning in SZ. By perturbing these mechanisms in our models, we select a set of candidate mechanisms that are validated in vivo and in a clincial context (CSF and longitudinal MRI imaging) using within-subjects analyses followed by case-control analyses utilizing a cohort consisting of &gt
    200 subjects.
  • European Commission
    1 November 2023 - 31 October 2027
    The European University Alliance of Brain and Technology, NeurotechEU, envisions Neurotechnology as the next step in the deep tech revolution, or technology from the brain, for the brain, and with the brain. Our program's thematic focus is arranged along 8 dimensions providing strategic bridges between various disciplines, including neuroscience, medicine, engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, robotics, social sciences, and the humanities. NeurotechEU constitutes the backbone of this vision by bringing together 8 leading universities across Europe and a significant amount of relevant associated partners, including partner research institutions, (SME) companies, societal stakeholders, and (non) governmental organisations, to create a unique educational environment where the next generation of European researchers and citizens can cooperate and work across different European and global cultures. Collectively we will enable deep institutional transformation by focusing on trans-European innovative learning processes grounded in the emergent field of Neurotechnology with its synergistic coupling of science, technology and application. We will create inclusive, wholistic, and comprehensive training programme in all eight NeurotechEU dimensions based on the NeurotechEU epistemic cycle and the knowledge square. This content-driven transformation will foster the next generation of multidisciplinary scientists and engineers by training them as integrators through the unique NeurotechEU pedagogical model, the complementarity of the partners and access to cutting-edge avant-garde infrastructure and training platforms. We will further advance and validate the initiative's sustainability and governance models. NeurotechEU is built on the common values and general principles of the European Union as laid down in the Bologna process, the Paris Communiqué, and the Magna Charta Universitatum, which are propagated through all activities.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2026
    The origin and progression of many neurodegenerative diseases is not clearly understood, and basic research is required to provide a platform for development of effective therapies. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable progressive disease of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain, being associated with dysfunctional microglia. The purpose of this research proposal is to address this unmet need using a dual therapeutic platform approach aiming to modulate the activity of disease-associated microglia. Based on several years of our research into microglial biology and development of immunotherapies, the aim of our research programme is to develop novel immunotherapies including (i) enforced cellular repopulation of the CNS, in which we will replace microglia with transplanted healthy cells, and (ii) cuttimg-edge nanobiologics delivering specific immunomodulatory drugs that will specifically modify microglial function. We will develop protocols for such therapies and investigate the immunomodulatory effects at molecular and functional levels in both in vitro brain organoid cell culture systems and in vivo in experimental models of ALS. We envisage that these therapeutic platforms will be applicable to a range of neurodegenerative diseases. Not only will these platforms provide potential personalised immunotherapies for translation into the clinic but will also greatly increase our understanding of the molecular cues governing microglial colonization of the CNS.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2026
  • Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2020
    Tumors suppress the host's immune system. Breaking this immunosuppression is important for effective tumor therapy. Nanoparticles that contain softening molecules or tumor-killing chemicals are a new form of specific therapy that can be used to achieve immunosuppression. We have previously identified some of the most important molecules and genes that need to be silenced to prevent the development of immunosuppression and to prevent the growth of brain tumors. We will develop new gene-silencing molecules, so-called RNAi, nanoparticles for the treatment of brain tumors. The technology for this development is already established and patented. A number of molecules in the brain tumor will be blocked while delivery of a tumor-killing substance is delivered. We will try different combinations of these different agents to develop an effective protocol for the treatment of brain tumors. The technique will also be tested in melanoma and could be used with various cancers. People with GBM die on average within 2.5 years after diagnosis. We strive to improve survival by combining new therapeutic options for inhibition of immunosuppression in parallel with tumor-killing treatment. Nanoparticles will be used to deliver specific immunomodulatory agents, and different types of nanoparticles will be tested so that an optimal variant can be selected. We will first explore this concept in animal models with the long-term goal of translating the therapy to the clinic and thereby dramatically increase the life expectancy of people with brain tumors.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2019 - 31 December 2021
  • Nanoparticle immunotherapy for the treatment of brain tumors
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2019
    Tumors suppress the host's immune system. Breaking this immunosuppression is important for effective tumor therapy. Nanoparticles that contain softening molecules or tumor-killing chemicals are a new form of specific therapy that can be used to achieve immunosuppression. We have previously identified some of the most important molecules and genes that need to be silenced to prevent the development of immunosuppression and to prevent the growth of brain tumors. We will develop new gene-silencing molecules, so-called RNAi, nanoparticles for the treatment of brain tumors. The technology for this development is already established and patented. A number of molecules in the brain tumor will be blocked while delivery of a tumor-killing substance is delivered. We will try different combinations of these different agents to develop an effective protocol for the treatment of brain tumors. The technique will also be tested in melanoma and could be used with various cancers. People with GBM die on average within 2.5 years after diagnosis. We strive to improve survival by combining new therapeutic options for inhibition of immunosuppression in parallel with tumor-killing treatment. Nanoparticles will be used to deliver specific immunomodulatory agents, and different types of nanoparticles will be tested so that an optimal variant can be selected. We will first explore this concept in animal models with the long-term goal of translating the therapy to the clinic and thereby dramatically increase the life expectancy of people with brain tumors.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2018 - 31 December 2020
  • Breaking brain tumor-associated immunosuppression by macrophage cell therapy
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2015
    During inflammation the balance/imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cellular activities will decide outcome – disease progression or healing. In patients with chronic inflammatory diseases there is an imbalance. Injecting pre-activated macrophages will restore this immunological imbalance. We have demonstrated that transfer of immunosuppressive macrophages modulates autoimmune diseases and have recently extended the myeloid cell therapy platform to include use of adult microglia. In cancer settings transfer of immunoactivated macrophages will reduce immunosuppression associated with the tumor environment and enable effective tumor killing Our goal is to provide proof-of-concept in an experimental model of glioblastoma brain tumors that effective therapy can be conducted using adoptive transfer of myeloid cells. Combined transfer of pre-activated, pro-inflammatory cells directly into the brain as well as peripherally will serve to enable mounting of an efficient anti-tumor immune response that will be not be suppressed by the tumor. We will study the immunological mechanisms involved in vitro by studying macrophage and TAMs. This project not only give us to better understanding of fundamental tumor immunobiological processes, but will also be directly translatable to the clinic Individuals with GBM are usaully dead with 2.5 years of diagnosis - we aim to increase that life expectancy dramatically through establishment of a clinical protocol that is repeatable due to use of an individual's own blood cells.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2015 - 31 December 2018
  • Breaking brain tumor-associated immunosuppression by macrophage cell therapy
    Swedish Cancer Society
    1 January 2014
    During inflammation the balance/imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cellular activities will decide outcome – disease progression or healing. In patients with chronic inflammatory diseases there is an imbalance. Injecting pre-activated macrophages will restore this immunological imbalance. We have demonstrated that transfer of immunosuppressive macrophages modulates autoimmune diseases and have recently extended the myeloid cell therapy platform to include use of adult microglia. In cancer settings transfer of immunoactivated macrophages will reduce immunosuppression associated with the tumor environment and enable effective tumor killing Our goal is to provide proof-of-concept in an experimental model of glioblastoma brain tumors that effective therapy can be conducted using adoptive transfer of myeloid cells. Combined transfer of pre-activated, pro-inflammatory cells directly into the brain as well as peripherally will serve to enable mounting of an efficient anti-tumor immune response that will be not be suppressed by the tumor. We will study the immunological mechanisms involved in vitro by studying macrophage and TAMs. This project not only give us to better understanding of fundamental tumor immunobiological processes, but will also be directly translatable to the clinic Individuals with GBM are usaully dead with 2.5 years of diagnosis - we aim to increase that life expectancy dramatically through establishment of a clinical protocol that is repeatable due to use of an individual's own blood cells.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2012 - 31 December 2012
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2012 - 31 December 2014
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2009 - 31 December 2011
  • Alternatively activated macrophages as a novel innate immune T1D therapy
    Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
    1 September 2008 - 31 August 2009
  • Alternatively activated macrophages as a novel innate immune T1D therapy
    Breakthrough T1D
    1 September 2008 - 31 August 2009

Employments

  • Professor, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, 2013-

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 1999

Leadership and responsibility assignments

  • Academic vice president, Academic Vice-President of Doctoral Education, Karolinska Institutet, 2019-

Distinction and awards

News from KI

Events from KI