In addition to his academic and research pursuits, Dr. Klareskog has been a vigorous participant in many national and international organizations. From 1995–2012 he was a member of the Karolinska’s Nobel Assembly; he has participated as a member of EULAR’s scientific committee; he has chaired and co-chaired the Scientific Board of the Swedish Rheumatism Association, a patient organization; and he has served on advisory boards of several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He has been devoted to the development of international consortia in arthritis research.
Asked whether he took time off, he answers simply, “Rarely.”
A life in science, he explains, is “a privileged life that contains so many opportunities for exploration of different scientific and social cultures and so many opportunities to meet with engaged humans beings from all over the world. So ‘time off’ is not what you wish for as a scientist,” he says—“in particular when being married to an equally engaged and internationally active scientist.” Dr. Klareskog’s wife is Ingrid Lundberg, professor in the same department at the Karolinska.
Gretchen Henkel is a medical journalist based in California.
References
- Klareskog L, Sandberg-Tragardh L, Rask L, et al. Chemical properties of human Ia antigens. Nature. 1977 Jan 20; 265(5591):248–251.
- Klareskog L, Forsum U, Scheynius A, et al., Evidence in support of a self-perpetuating HLA-DR-dependent delayed-type cell reaction in rheumatoid arthritis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jun;79(11):3632–3636.
- Klareskog L, Tjernlund U, Forsum U, et al. Epidermal Langerhans cells express Ia antigens. Nature. 1977 Jul 21;268(5617):248–250.
- Klareskog L, Stolt P, Lundberg K, et al. A new model for an etiology of rheumatoid arthritis: Smoking may trigger HLA-DR (shared epitope)-restricted immune reactions to autoantigens modified by citrullination. Arthritis Rheum. 2006 Jan;54(1):38–46.
- Plenge RM, Seielstad M, Padyukov L, et al. TRAF1-C5 as a risk locus for rheumatoid arthritis–a genome wide study. N Engl J Med. 2007 Sep 20;357(12):1199–1209.
- Klareskog L, Catrina AI, Paget S. Rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet. 2009 Feb 21;373(9664):659–672.
- Amara K, Steen J, Murray F, et al. Monoclonal IgG antibodies generated from joint-derived B cells of RA patients have a strong bias toward citrullinated autoantigen recognition. J Exp Med. 2013 Mar 11;210(3):445–455.
- Klareskog L, Gregersen PK, Huizinga TWJ. Prevention of autoimmune rheumatic disease: state of the art and future perspectives. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010 Dec; 69(12):2062–2066.
