We are delighted to welcome Sara Rolandsson Enes as a new WCMM Fellow at the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine (WCMM) Lund. Sara leads the Cell Therapy & Regenerative Medicine research group and brings extensive expertise in translational respiratory research, regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies.
Sara obtained her PhD in Stem Cell Biology at Lund University in 2016. Following her doctoral studies, she was awarded a prestigious EU/ERS Marie Curie Fellowship and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Vermont, USA, where she combined cell therapy and bioengineering approaches to study lung diseases. In 2023, she became Docent in Regenerative Medicine.
Her research focuses on acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a severe inflammatory lung condition that affects critically ill patients and currently lacks effective targeted treatments. By integrating mechanistic studies, single-cell transcriptomics, experimental disease models and patient-derived samples, Sara's group investigates how inflammatory environments influence mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) function and therapeutic outcomes. Ultimately, the goal is to develop precision-based MSC therapies and improve treatment strategies for inflammatory lung diseases.
As she prepares to officially begin her WCMM Fellowship in July, we spoke with Sara about her research, scientific ambitions and what she hopes to contribute to the WCMM community.
| Welcome to WCMM Lund! What excites you most about this new role and becoming part of the WCMM community?
- "First of all, I would like to sincerely thank the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Faculty of Medicine for this opportunity. I am truly grateful and excited about the opportunity to become part of a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment within WCMM Lund. I am especially looking forward to developing my independent research program while also benefiting from the strong scientific network and mentorship that WCMM offers."
| Your research focuses on ARDS and MSC-based therapies. What are the key scientific questions driving your work?
- "Yes, the overarching question is how the host environment shapes MSC function and therapeutic outcomes. However, within that broad question there are several key scientific questions that drive my research. One is understanding which components of the inflammatory lung environment are most important in directing MSC behaviour. Another is understanding why MSC therapies appear to work better in some contexts and patients than in others.
I am also interested in identifying the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie these differences and whether they can help us predict treatment responses."
| ARDS remains a major clinical challenge with limited treatment options. What makes this disease particularly difficult to treat?
- "ARDS is particularly challenging to treat because it is not a single uniform disease, but rather an umbrella term with multiple underlying causes and highly heterogeneous pathophysiology. It can be triggered by different factors such as pneumonia, sepsis or trauma, but the resulting lung injury varies significantly between patients in terms of severity and underlying biological mechanisms.
A key difficulty is the complex and dysregulated inflammatory response, which leads to increased vascular permeability, pulmonary edema, and impaired gas exchange. Another major challenge is the lack of targeted therapies. Most current treatments are supportive, such as lung-protective ventilation and prone positioning, rather than interventions that directly modify the underlying disease processes."
| Your group combines mechanistic studies, single-cell transcriptomics, animal models and patient-derived samples. How do these approaches work together?
- "These approaches are highly complementary because they allow us to study ARDS across different levels of biological complexity and to bridge mechanistic findings with clinical relevance."
| Translational research is central to WCMM Lund. How does your work connect basic science with clinical applications?
- "My research is truly translational because I want to understand the biological mechanisms that determine whether MSC-based therapies succeed or fail in ARDS and then use that knowledge to design better clinical MSC trials and ultimately improve clinical outcomes for the patients."
| Precision medicine is becoming increasingly important across biomedical research. How do you envision patient stratification improving future MSC therapies?
- "I believe patient stratification will be essential for improving the success of future MSC therapies because ARDS is a highly heterogeneous syndrome. Patients may have different underlying causes, inflammatory profiles, disease stages and immune responses, all of which can influence how they respond to treatment.
My research is based on the idea that the host environment plays a critical role in controlling MSC function. If the inflammatory environment differs between patients, it is likely that MSCs will behave differently and produce different therapeutic outcomes. Therefore, treating all ARDS patients as a single group may mask benefits in specific patient subsets.
In the future, I envision using molecular, cellular, and clinical biomarkers to identify patient subgroups that are most likely to benefit from MSC therapy. This could include stratification based on inflammatory endotypes, immune signatures, or other indicators of the host response."
| Lund University offers a rich research environment. Are there particular collaborations or infrastructures you are eager to engage with?
- "This is actually a difficult question because Lund University offers such a rich and diverse research environment, with an impressive range of expertise, technologies and infrastructures. I see this as an exciting opportunity to discover collaborations that I may not yet be aware of. Often, some of the most impactful ideas emerge from unexpected interactions across fields."
| You are active in several scientific networks. How important are collaborations in advancing translational research?
- "For me, being involved in networks such as the European Respiratory Society and the Lund Respiratory Network has been both rewarding and inspiring. Of course, these networks create opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and new research ideas, but what I enjoy most is being part of a community that is actively shaping the future of the field."
| You recently attended the annual PALS meeting in Kolmården. What were your impressions?
- "I found the annual PALS meeting incredibly rewarding and very timely, especially as I am about to begin my WCMM Fellowship. It provided an excellent opportunity to meet other fellows, learn about their research, and gain a broader perspective on the scientific strengths within the network."
| Looking ahead, what would success look like for your research programme over the next decade?
- "When I think about success over the next 5–10 years, I hope to have contributed meaningful new knowledge about how the host environment shapes MSC function and therapeutic outcomes in ARDS. I would like our work to provide mechanistic insights that help explain why cell-based therapies succeed in some settings and not in others.
If, in 10 years, our work has helped identify which patients are most likely to benefit from MSC therapy and contributed to bringing more effective treatments closer to the clinic, I would consider that a tremendous success."
| Finally, what continues to motivate and inspire you as a researcher?
"What continues to motivate me most as a researcher is curiosity. I am driven by a desire to understand how biological systems work and to answer questions that we do not yet fully understand. I enjoy working at the interface between basic science and clinical medicine, where research questions are closely connected to real clinical challenges."
As WCMM Lund continues to strengthen its translational research environment, Sara's work represents an important contribution to understanding inflammatory lung disease and developing the next generation of precision cell therapies.
We warmly welcome her to the WCMM community and look forward to following the progress of her research program!