Rate My Professor Jonas Fuxe

Jonas Fuxe is Professor of Molecular Pathology in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, appointed to the position on 1 June 2025. He also serves as Head of the Department since 1 January 2023 and leads the Jonas Fuxe Group in the Division of Pathology. Born in 1964 in Stockholm, he studied medicine at Karolinska Institutet and obtained his PhD in cell and molecular biology from the same institution in 2001. Fuxe was awarded the title of Docent in 2011 and worked as a researcher in the Department of Laboratory Medicine from 2020 to 2025. Earlier, he conducted research as a visiting researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. His career encompasses significant contributions to academic leadership, teaching, and research group management at Karolinska Institutet.

The research of Jonas Fuxe focuses on cellular plasticity as a key driver linking chronic inflammation and cancer progression, particularly epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), tumor cell invasion, metastasis, and interactions within the tumor microenvironment. Major themes include remodeling of blood and lymphatic vessels, phenotypic switches in endothelial and epithelial cells, TGF-β signaling, immune escape mechanisms, and chemotactic factors such as IL7 and IL15 that promote breast cancer cell migration through lymphatic systems. The Jonas Fuxe Group utilizes in vitro studies and mouse models of chronic airway inflammation and cancer to dissect intercellular junctions, growth factor-induced tissue remodeling, and monocyte/macrophage properties in tumor cells. Key publications include "TGF-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition: a link between cancer and inflammation" (Seminars in Cancer Biology, 2012), "A SNAIL1-SMAD3/4 transcriptional repressor complex promotes TGF-β mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition" (Nature Cell Biology, 2009), "Epithelial-mesenchymal transition in cancer metastasis through the lymphatic system" (Molecular Oncology, 2017), "Reprogramming Tumor-Associated Macrophages by Antibody Targeting Inhibits Cancer Progression and Metastasis" (Cell Reports, 2016), "CXADR-Mediated Formation of an AKT Inhibitory Signalosome at Tight Junctions Controls Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity in Breast Cancer" (Cancer Research, 2019), and "Guidelines and definitions for research on epithelial-mesenchymal transition" (Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2020). These studies have elucidated molecular mechanisms underlying tumor invasiveness, vascular barrier functions, and potential therapeutic targets for preventing metastasis.