Joint PIs

Fredrik Bäckhed holds a PhD in infectious biology from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden in 2002 and performed his postdoctoral training with Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University, St Louis where he identified the gut microbiota as an environmental factor that regulates adiposity and obesity. Dr Bäckhed joined the faculty at University of Gothenburg in 2006 where he is full professor.  He is also appointed Professor at University of Copenhagen and has been guest Professor at University of Oslo (2013-15) and did a sabbatical at University of Hawaii (2019).

Fredrik Bäckhed has received several prestigious awards and appointments including:

• Bengt Ihre medal, Swedish Society of Gastroenterology (2022)

• Lydia J. Roberts Memorial Lecturer (2021): Gut Microbiota and Its Effects on Type 2 Diabetes

• Gold medallist, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) for outstanding achievements within engineering, economics, business and industry, and society (2020)

• DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator (2010)

• Prince Daniel´s award for a young promising researcher, Swedish Heart Lung Foundation (2013)

• The DuPont Young Professor Award (2013)

• ERC consolidator award (2013)

• Göran Gustafsson’s Prize in Medicine (2014)

In addition he has received the Minkowsiki prize from the EASD which is awarded to the most outstanding young European diabetes researcher under the age of 45. He has been elected to the Young Academy of Sweden (2011-2015), The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (2015), The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2018). He has also been appointed Torsten Söderberg Professor in Medicine (one in Sweden each year) and Wallenberg Scholar.

Ongoing major aims of the group are to: (1) identify factors that contribute to the altered gut microbiota in individuals with cardiometabolic diseases, (2) stratify individuals into subpopulations based on their microbial composition and clinical variables for personalized interventions, and (3) investigate how the gut microbiota contributes to the therapeutic efficacy of interventions such as diet, drugs, and bariatric surgery. With this knowledge, we aim to develop novel microbiota-based therapeutics, and, in a step towards fulfilling this aim, we have recently identified microbial metabolites as potential regulators of cardiometabolic diseases.

1. Roswall, J., Olsson, L.M., Kovatcheva-Datchary, P., Nilsson, S., Tremaroli, V., Simon, M.C., Kiilerich, P., Akrami, R., Krämer, M., Uhlén, M., Gummesson, A., Kristiansen, K., Dahlgren, J., Bäckhed, F. Developmental trajectory of the healthy human gut microbiota during the first 5 years of life. Cell Host Microbe (2021)

2. Koh, A., Mannerås-Holm, L., Yunn, Na Oh, Nilsson, Peter M., Ryu, SH., Molinaro, A., Perkins, R., Smith, G., Bäckhed, F. Microbial Imidazole Propionate Affects Responses to Metformin through p38γ-Dependent Inhibitory AMPK Phosphorylation. Cell Metabolism (2020)

3. Wu, H., Tremaroli, V., Schmidt, C., Lundqvist, A., Olsson, L.M., Krämer, M., Gummesson, A., Perkins, R.,Bergström, G., Bäckhed, F. The gut microbiota in prediabetes and diabetes: a population-based cross-sectional study. Cell Metabolism (2020)

4. Koh, A., Molinaro, A., Ståhlman, M., Khan, M.T., Schmidt, C., Mannerås-Holm, L., Wu, H., Carreras, A., Jeong, H., Olofsson, L., Bergh, P., Gerdes, V., Hartstra, A, de Brauw, D., Perkins, R., Nieuwdorp, M., Bergström, G.,Bäckhed, F. Microbe-produced imidazole propionate impairs insulin signaling via p38γ/p62/mTORC1. Cell (2018)

5. Wu, H., Esteve, E., Tremaroli, V., Khan, M.T., Caesar, R., Mannerås-Holm, L., Ståhlman, M., Olsson, L.M., Serino, M., Planas-Fèlix, M., Xifra, G., Mercader, J.M., Torrents, D., Burcelin, R., Ricart, W., Perkins, R., Fernàndez-Real, J.M., Bäckhed, F. Metformin alters the gut microbiome of individuals with treatment-naive type 2 diabetes, contributing to the therapeutic effects of the drug. Nature Medicine (2017)

6. Kovatcheva-Datchary, P., Nilsson, A., Akrami, R., Lee, Y.S., De Vadder, F., Arora, T., Hallen, A., Martens, E., Björck, I., Bäckhed, F.Dietary fiber improvement of glucose metabolism is associated with abundance of Prevotella. Cell Metabolism (2015)

7. Karlsson, F., Tremaroli, V., Nookaew, I., Bergström, G., Behre, C. J., Fagerberg, B., Nielsen, J., Bäckhed, F. Gut metagenome in European women with normal, impaired and diabetic glucose control. Nature (2013)

8. Bäckhed, F., Ding, H., Wang, T., Hooper, L. V., Koh, G. Y., Nagy, A., Semenkovich, CF., Gordon, J. I. The gut microbiota as an environmental factor that regulates fat storage. Proceeding of National Academy of Sciences USA, (2004)