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Five Lund researchers received grants to deepen knowledge about the effects of COVID-19

Cardiovascular and lung disease increase the risk of complications in COVID-19. Therefore, the Heart-Lung Foundation has granted SEK 3.1 million for five research projects at Lund University that will contribute to more knowledge about the effects of COVID-19. One of the researchers, Jonas Erjefält, professor in Medical Inflammation, has been granted SEK 1 million for mapping of immunological disease mechanisms in COVID-19.

Congratulations on the grant! How will you use the funds?

– We will perform detailed explorations of changes in immune cells and of tissue damages in lungs from patients who died from severe COVID-19. Specifically, we will reveal the nature of the complex immune cell constellations that are formed in severely affected lungs. Another important part is to understand how immune cell patterns correlate to the type and stage of tissue damage and local tissue presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. 

Tell us about this planned COVID-19 research?    

– Since it is hard to obtain well-preserved lung tissue for this type of research, our work is carried out in collaboration with a large clinical pathology center in Brazil. The project also involves collaborations with companies at Medicon Village in Lund and USA. Apart from holistic immune cell patterns certain cell types, like mast cell and macrophages, are subjected to an in-depth phenotyping. Our preliminary data have exposed intriguing alterations in mast cell protease profiles in COVID-19 that may have consequences both for the acute inflammation and the type of lung fibrosis that develops after periods of prolonged severe COVID-19. Some of these data are part of an extensive manuscript that was recently presented in a thesis by Premkumar Siddhuraj in our research group. We have also generated a wealth of data and a separate manuscript on the spatial complexity and time course of the cellular inflammation that is triggered by severe SARS-CoV-2-induced lung damage.

What do you hope for?
– Our aim is to further highlight the true magnitude of the immunological and histopathological complexity in severe COVID-19. In the rapidly expanding COVID-19 literature, the way the immunological mechanisms are portrayed is in most cases far too simplistic. This, in turn, may mislead the work on optimizing therapeutic strategies for COVID-19 and future pandemics.

In which way might it benefit patients?
– All new data that helps us understanding the disease complexity is helpful for the selection of novel therapeutic strategies.


Is it possible to say when?
– Not exactly, but our close contact with the pharma industry speeds up the potential use of our data in validating new treatment ideas.

All in all SEK 15,7 million was granted by the Heart-Lung Foundtion to 30 research projects in Sweden.

The other four recipients from Lund University are:

  • Gunilla Westergren-Thorsson (Identifiering av tidiga tecken på permanenta lungskador hos patienter med COVID-19)
  • Jan Nilsson, (Utveckling av diagnostik för förekomst av autoantikroppar mot receptorer hos patienter med långtidscovid)
  • Hans Friberg (Akut lungskada, lungfibros, biomarkörer och cerebral trötthet i sviterna efter svår covid19 - långtidsuppföljning och rehabilitering. SWECRITcovid-19)
  • Artur Fedorowski (Kronisk kardiovaskulär dysautonomi och POTS som långtidskonsekvens av COVID-19 infektion hos svenska patienter)
jonas erjefält. photo

Jonas Erjefält, Professor in Medical Inflammation Research

Age: 55

Lives: Södra Sandby, just outside Lund

Education: PhD in medical histology

Professional background: Basic training in Lund, Research Scientist in the Pharma industry, Post Doc at National Heart Lung Institute, London, research group leader at Department of Experimental Medical Science