Rate My Professor Anna Wredenberg

Anna Wredenberg is Professor of Mitochondrial Biology in the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet, a position she assumed on 1 February 2024. She concurrently serves as a Specialist Physician in Clinical Genetics at the Centre for Inherited Metabolic Diseases at Karolinska University Hospital, dedicating fifty percent of her time to clinical diagnostics and treatment of patients with rare genetic diseases involving mitochondrial dysfunction. As Assistant Head of Department at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, she holds signatory responsibilities for the divisions of Molecular Neurobiology and Chemical Biology & Genome Engineering, participates in the Executive Council and Senate, and substitutes for the Head of Department at meetings. Wredenberg, born in 1974 in Stockholm, began her academic journey with a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy from Karolinska Institutet in 1996, followed by a University Medical Degree in 2004 and a PhD in 2007 from the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the same institution, with a thesis on mitochondrial dysfunction in ageing and degenerative disease. Her postdoctoral training included positions at Karolinska Institutet from 2004 to 2008 and at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne from 2008 to 2012, after which she returned to Karolinska Institutet as Research Group Leader in 2012.

The Wredenberg group focuses on mitochondrial metabolism in health and disease, examining how mitochondrial dysfunction affects cellular processes, particularly energy metabolism, and regulatory mechanisms of mitochondrial DNA and RNA metabolism. Research explores influences on mitochondrial gene expression, RNA turnover, mitochondrial dynamics, and defects in inborn errors of metabolism, with implications for common diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancers, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune disorders. The group utilizes Drosophila melanogaster models, mammalian systems, primary patient cells, reprogrammed neuronal stem cells, and multi-omics approaches, in close collaboration with clinical settings for novel disease validation. Key publications include 'The mitochondrial methylation potential gates mitoribosome assembly' (Nature Communications, 2025, Glasgow et al.), 'Preventing excessive autophagy protects from the pathology of mtDNA mutations in Drosophila melanogaster' (Nature Communications, 2024, El Fissi et al.), 'Quantitative proteomics of patient fibroblasts reveal biomarkers and diagnostic signatures of mitochondrial disease' (JCI Insight, 2024, Correia et al.), 'MTERF3 regulates mitochondrial ribosome biogenesis in invertebrates and mammals' (PLoS Genetics, 2013, Wredenberg et al.), and 'Premature ageing in mice expressing defective mitochondrial DNA polymerase' (Nature, 2004, Trifunovic et al.). Wredenberg has been awarded the Ragnar Söderberg Fellowship in Medicine (2013, 8 million SEK), a Novo Nordisk Foundation grant (2018, DKK 5 million), and Wallenberg Foundation funding (2024, SEK 24 million).