Urban Hellman

2010 I defended my thesis on hyaluronan in cardiac hypertrophy. I am researching hereditary heart diseases, rheumatic diseases and metabolic diseases and supervising students at the lab. I also work at Norrland University Hospital at Heart Center and the Centre for Cardiovascular Genetics as a healthcare developer. 

My research interest is the significance of extracellular matrix in growth and inflammation in pathological and healthy tissue. The metabolism of the glycosaminoglycan hyaluronan and its involvement of energy metabolism and glucose have evolved into my research focus. Over the years, I have studied hyaluronan metabolism in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, psoriasis arthritis, pancreatic cancer, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, keloid, scleroderma, respiratory papilloma and developed new methods for analysis of hyaluronan.

Together with Göran Larsson, we are now developing a method to protect hyaluronan against degradation and inhibit the emergence of bioactive fragments, which are part of the inflammatory process.
During 2018, I worked at the department of Biomedical Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, New York, USA. We developed a method for concentration and sizing measurements of hyaluronan. At the Matrix Biology Institute, New Jersey, I studied how elevated concentration of hyaluronan around cultured cardiomyocytes affects their contractions negatively and thereby causes a potential arrhythmia risk.

I also help Andreas Josefsson, WCMM, with hyaluronan analysis in his project on prostate cancer and circulating tumor cells. Hyaluronan interaction with transthyretin in the heart of amyloidosis is another interest I have together with Intissar Anan, WCMM/Medicine, Malin Olsson at the division of Medicine and Anders Olofsson, Medical biochemistry and biophysics.