Projects per year
Personal profile
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PROFESSOR | Genetics and Genomic Sciences PROFESSOR | Medicine, Cardiology
Biography
Education PhD, Karolinska Institutet MD, Karolinska University Hospital Biography Focusing on cardiovascular diseases, the goal of my research is to use multi-modal big data analysis to create reliable network models of human biology and disease. Network models have enormous potential to improve our ability to predict disease risk, identify new therapeutic targets, and to monitor molecular effects of treatments. To achieve this goal, I have designed and generated a range of clinical datasets of cardiovascular disease that combine detailed clinical characteristics with imaging, genomics, proteomics, and other types of data. My research has long focused on cardiovascular disease. My early work explored the role of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in coronary artery disease (CAD), and my postdoctoral studies in mouse models established the hepatic gene microsomal triglyceride transfer protein as a key target to lower plasma cholesterol levels and reduce atherosclerosis. Since then, my primary focus has been systems analyses to generate network models from large genomic datasets—both from CAD patients in the clinic and from cellular and mouse models of atherosclerosis progression and regression in the laboratory. Throughout the last decade, I have designed and led a range of clinical and mouse model studies to elucidate the inherit complexity of CAD. As one of the first clinical scientists to apply the emerging technologies of molecular profiling to large patient cohorts, I have revealed the role of functionally associated genes in several molecular networks that drive CAD. A common complex disease such as CAD cannot be understood nor cured by targeting isolated genes. Rather, the focus needs to be on molecular disease processes mirrored by regulatory-gene networks that capture the combined effects of many genetic and environmental risk factors. To this end, and before my arrival at Mount Sinai, much of my time has gone into gathering a truly unique biobank from CAD patients undergoing different forms of heart surgery. The Stockholm-Tartu Atherosclerosis Reverse Network Engineering Task (STARNET) is a joint study initiative between the cardiovascular chief surgeon at the Tartu University Hospital in Estonia, Dr. Arno Ruusalepp, and myself. Using the STARNET bio-bank in collaboration with the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences here at Mount Sinai, we have now generated RNA sequence data from up to nine CAD-relevant tissues isolated from over 500 hundred clinically well–characterized patients. This unprecedented dataset is the main resource for our current efforts to generate network models that predict the risk for and clinical outcomes of CAD. My entrepreneurial ambitions have focused on translating the results of our systems genetic research into new therapies and diagnostics for patients at risk for or suffering CAD. I have launched several entrepreneurial projects. Of particular importance is Clinical Gene Networks AB—the first Bio-IT company in Sweden, founded in 2003 with the goal of exploring “clinical” networks to generate the next generation of diagnostics and therapies based on network models of complex diseases. I am exited to be a member of the exceptional team at the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multi-scale Biology, led by Eric E. Schadt. Eric and I have a longstanding collaboration based on similar ideas despite wide difference in our basic training. I am privileged to be part of this world-leading research center. It allows me to achieve my goals through access to a diversity of skills and talented collaborators.
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Projects
- 4 Finished
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Toward Diagnostics and Therapies of Molecular Subcategories of CAD
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
1/09/15 → 30/11/19
Project: Research
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Regulatory Endothelial, Tissue and Cross-Tissue Networks in Coronary Artery Disease-A Systems Approach
1/01/12 → 31/12/14
Project: Research
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Effects of chronic electronic cigarettes exposure in inducing respiratory function decline and pulmonary tissue injury – A direct comparison to combustible cigarettes
Zhang, J., Cheng, H., Xue, M., Xiong, Y., Zhu, Y., Björkegren, J. L. M., Zhang, Z., Chen, J., Shi, Z. & Hao, K., 1 Jan 2023, In: Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. 249, 114426.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
A single-cell transcriptomic inventory of murine smooth muscle cells
Muhl, L., Mocci, G., Pietilä, R., Liu, J., He, L., Genové, G., Leptidis, S., Gustafsson, S., Buyandelger, B., Raschperger, E., Hansson, E. M., Björkegren, J. L. M., Vanlandewijck, M., Lendahl, U. & Betsholtz, C., 24 Oct 2022, In: Developmental Cell. 57, 20, p. 2426-2443.e6Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Scopus citations -
Atherosclerosis: Recent developments
Björkegren, J. L. M. & Lusis, A. J., 12 May 2022, In: Cell. 185, 10, p. 1630-1645 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
Open Access46 Scopus citations -
A Transcriptional Regulation Bioinformatics Pipeline to Predict Co-Regulated Genes in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypic Transitions During Atherosclerosis
Reddy, M. S., Serbulea, V., Shamsuzzaman, S., Salamon, A., Tripathi, R., Miller, C., Mocci, G., Björkegren, J. & Owens, G., 1 May 2022, In: FASEB Journal. 36Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Author Correction: Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility profiling highlights regulatory mechanisms of coronary artery disease risk (Nature Genetics, (2022), 54, 6, (804-816), 10.1038/s41588-022-01069-0)
Turner, A. W., Hu, S. S., Mosquera, J. V., Ma, W. F., Hodonsky, C. J., Wong, D., Auguste, G., Song, Y., Sol-Church, K., Farber, E., Kundu, S., Kundaje, A., Lopez, N. G., Ma, L., Ghosh, S. K. B., Onengut-Gumuscu, S., Ashley, E. A., Quertermous, T., Finn, A. V., Leeper, N. J., & 4 others , Aug 2022, In: Nature Genetics. 54, 8, p. 1259 1 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate
Open Access1 Scopus citations
Press / Media
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Discovery and systematic characterization of risk variants and genes for coronary artery disease in over a million participants - Nature Genetics
7/12/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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New Study Identifies Critical Genes That Cause Coronary Heart Disease and Trigger Heart Attacks
Ke Hao, Jason Kovacic & Johan Bjorkegren
2/03/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media
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World First Discovery Could Help Reduce Heart Attacks in Women
Jason Kovacic & Johan Bjorkegren
6/03/21
2 items of Media coverage
Press/Media
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Anslag till forskare i Göteborg, Stockholm, Skåne, Uppsala, Umeå, Linköping
8/12/17
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media