Lars Larsson, MD, PhD

In his research over the course of four decades, Dr. Lars Larsson of the Karolinska Institute, the Chief Scientist of Leksum, sought a detailed understanding of the mechanisms underlying the impaired muscle function and muscle wasting associated with aging and in the ICU including in ventilator-induced specific muscle diseases. 

He focused on physiological and pathophysiological changes of the molecular motor protein myosin and its associated proteins, and took a translational approach combining experimental animal models with clinical studies in patients and healthy control subjects, to develop effective and safe therapeutic interventions. He studied the regulation of muscle contraction at the motor protein and muscle cell levels, and in 3D organization of myonuclei in single muscle fibers in short single muscle fiber segments obtained from humans with the percutaneous muscle biopsy technique or from different experimental animal models. These methods are used in parallel with state-of-the-art molecular biological, cell biological, biochemical, and morphological methods. 

He has been Professor and Chair of the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Uppsala University Hospital and Uppsala University; Research Professor, Center for Developmental & Health Genetics, Pennsylvania State University; Marie Underhill Noll Professor, Pennsylvania State University; and Professor, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute. He had the distinction of reporting on the first case in Scandinavia of CIM in an ICU patient almost three decades ago.