Charlotte Thålin

Charlotte Thålin, MD PhD, is Adjunct Professor and Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet and heads the Mucosal Immunology research group within the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital. She leads two large longitudinal clinical cohorts—COMMUNITY (n>2 000 healthcare workers) and MEDECA (n=1 500 patients with non-specific cancer symptoms)—and the newly launched D/T-MAP project (2024) funded by an ERC Starting Grant. Her work bridges bedside-to-bench research in mucosal immunology and early cancer detection, supported by a unique biobank of >60 000 paired serum–mucosal samples and advanced organoid and glycoproteomic platforms.

Education & Training: Although formal degree details are not provided, Dr Thålin is a clinically active physician-scientist, implying full medical and research training.

Research Interests:

• Molecular IgA glycobiology: dissecting how glycosylation modulates secretory IgA function against respiratory pathogens.
• Translational mucosal immunity: using human adult stem-cell-derived airway organoids to model protection and develop recombinant IgA therapeutics.
• Cancer early detection: discovery and validation of blood-based multi-analyte biomarker panels to identify occult malignancy before imaging.
• COVID-19 immunity: defining correlates of protection, durability of mucosal vs systemic responses, and risk of breakthrough infection.
• Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs): exploring NET formation as a link between inflammation, thrombosis and occult cancer.

Scientific Awards & Funding:

• ERC Starting Grant (2024)
• Knut and Alice Wallenberg Project Grant (2024)
• SSMF Consolidator Grant (2024)
• NIH, Heart-Lung Foundation, Region Stockholm, ALF Medicine and additional foundations

Research Group & Mentorship: Dr Thålin mentors a multidisciplinary team including 5 doctoral students (Aguilera, Almeida, Bladh, Stäheli, Wannberg), 1 postdoc (Pongracz) and several affiliated researchers and research nurses. The group collaborates with leading scientists at KTH, Uppsala University, Leiden UMC, Utrecht University, UNC Chapel Hill, Mount Sinai, NUS, Oxford and others.

Labs & Infrastructure: The group operates within the Clinical Research Center North (KFC) integrated into Danderyd Hospital, housing flow cytometry, ELISA, qPCR, extracellular vesicle isolation and a dedicated human airway organoid platform.