Susanne Schlisio

Susanne Schlisio is a Senior Lecturer (Docent) at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, where she has been faculty since 2017 and Senior Lecturer since 2023. Her research focuses on oxygen-sensing pathways in cancer, particularly neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma of the sympathoadrenal lineage, intratumor heterogeneity, and mitochondrial metabolism.

• Education: PhD in Cancer Research (2002, Duke University); Postdoctoral Researcher (2008, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School).

Research Highlights: She investigates how oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) drives cancer via altered oxygen-sensing mechanisms, utilizing single-nuclei transcriptomics, spatial sequencing, and novel mouse models to dissect tumor heterogeneity and identify differentiation strategies for therapy. Her work links hypoxia to mitochondrial dysfunction in VHL syndrome and defines cellular identities correlating with neuroblastoma clinical outcomes.

Awards and Grants: Recipient of the ERC Synergy Grant (2019), senior funding from the Swedish Cancer Foundation (2017), Ludwig Cancer Institute (2008), and multiple postdoctoral fellowships. Her lab collaborates with SciLifeLab and Mats Nilson’s group for spatial transcriptomics.

• Scientific Impact: Work on oxygen-sensing pathways in Kaelin’s lab contributed to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.