Karine Chemin

Karine Chemin is Associate Professor (docent, Immunology) at the Rheumatology Division, Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institute, where she serves as a Senior Research Specialist and team leader at the Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM). She coordinates the Allergy Immunology Inflammation (Aii) doctoral school at Karolinska Institute and maintains strong collaborations with the Rheumatology Clinic at Karolinska University Hospital and various research groups.

Dr. Chemin earned her Bachelor's degree in Cell Biology from University Rennes 1, France in 2000, followed by a Master's degree from Hôpital Saint Louis Paris in 2002. She completed her PhD in Hematology at Hôpital Saint Louis Paris between 2006-2010, after previously conducting research at the Center of Immunology Turku, Finland during an ERASMUS exchange in 1999. Her academic career at Karolinska Institute progressed from Postdoc (2011-2014) to Assistant Professor (2014-2018) to her current Senior Research Specialist position (2022-).

Her research focuses on tissue-resident memory T cells in rheumatic diseases, particularly investigating their role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM). Dr. Chemin's laboratory employs single-cell technologies (SmartSeq2 and 10X genomics) alongside conventional cell and molecular biology techniques to study T-cell populations in clinical samples. A specific area of interest is cytotoxic CD4+ T cells that share effector functions with CD8+ T cells. Her translational research benefits from collaborations with Prof. Ingrid Lundberg's team and geneticist/bioinformatics expert Dr. Lina Diaz-Gallo. Her work aims to provide better understanding of disease mechanisms to improve diagnosis and treatment approaches.

Analysis of Dr. Chemin's recent publications reveals a consistent focus on T cell biology in autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Her work frequently employs advanced single-cell sequencing techniques to characterize T cell receptor repertoires, antigen specificities, and tissue-resident T cell populations in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. Many studies investigate the relationship between genetic risk factors (particularly HLA alleles) and autoimmune T cell responses, with implications for diagnosis and treatment approaches.

Dr. Chemin has received research support from several prestigious organizations:

• Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council)
• Stiftelsen Konung Gustaf V:s 80-årsfond
• Reumatikerfonden
• Nanna Svartz Fond

As an educator, Dr. Chemin has taught numerous PhD courses at Karolinska Institute since 2013, including Basic Immunology, Basic Inflammation, Cell Signaling, Cytokines in Inflammation, and Translational Medicine in Autoimmunity. She has also taught medical students at the Rheumatology Clinic since 2019 and contributed to programs at Uppsala University and the Biomedicine Master Programme at KI. She has organized several PhD courses, demonstrating her commitment to academic training in immunology and rheumatology.

Dr. Chemin leads the "Autoimmunity and adaptive immunity in rheumatic disease" research group within Vivianne Malmström's team at the Center for Molecular Medicine. Her laboratory utilizes cutting-edge single-cell technologies to investigate the diversity of T-cell populations in autoimmune diseases, with a particular focus on understanding pathogenic mechanisms to improve diagnosis and treatment approaches for rheumatic conditions.