The Biobank & Larsson Lab

Leksum’s Muscle Regeneration Platform builds upon the nearly four decades of research led by our Chief Scientist Professor Lars Larsson, MD, PhD. The MD/PhD researchers on Professor Larsson’s team, also in Sweden, have worked alongside him for over a decade. The MD/PhD researchers in the Leksum research group have worked with Professor Larsson for over a decade and possessed a strong muscle preclinical and clinical background in muscle physiology before joining Professor Larsson’s team. Their clinical background includes research in anesthesiology/critical care and neurology with a specific interest in muscle disease.

When it comes to breakthroughs in VILI, VIDD, and CIM, Larsson’s research team is ahead of all other groups worldwide thanks to Leksum’s collection of assets.

A biobank to which the company has exclusive access

Leksum possesses exclusive perpetual access to a large biobank of human samples from ICU patients collected since the first patient was diagnosed with CIM in Sweden in 1995. Stored in the biobanks’ ultralow freezers are muscle tissue from 400+ ICU patients and a collection of 25 years’ worth of unique tissues and body fluids from rats exposed to the ICU condition, which includes muscle tissues from limb, trunk, respiratory muscles, organs (liver, spleen, kidney, brain), urine, plasma, feces, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluids.

Laboratory

No other lab in the world has the facilities capable of studying the two main kinds of ICU-relevant rat experimental models. Moreover, Leksum’s lab is the only one in the world that can do the long-term mechanistic and intervention rat studies required for substantive muscle studies under ICU conditions, which require immobilization and mechanical ventilation.

Drug Development Paradigm

Leksum has built a unique development paradigm for addressing muscle wasting. The company’s research focuses on the regulation of muscle size and function from the whole muscle, motor unit, and muscle cell down to the molecular motor protein level. Leksum possesses methods that can be used in any mammalian species but with a focus on human skeletal muscle in health and disease. Currently, these methods are used to unravel the mechanisms underlying the aging-related motor handicap and the dramatic muscle wasting and paralysis associated with modern critical ICU care.

See the technical video for more information.