Fredrik Backhed MSc, PhD

Professor Fredrik Backhed combines clinical-oriented research with gnotobiotic mouse models to address the role of the normal gut microbiota in metabolic diseases. Fredrik Bäckhed holds a PhD in infectious biology from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden in 2002 and performed his postdoctoral training with Jeffrey Gordon at Washington University, St Louis where he identified the gut microbiota as an environmental factor that regulates adiposity and obesity. Dr Bäckhed joined the faculty at the University of Gothenburg in 2006 where he is a full professor.  He was also appointed Professor at the University of Copenhagen and has been a guest Professor at the University of Oslo (2013-15) and did a sabbatical at the University of Hawaii (2019).

Dr Backhed has co-authored more than 150 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals, many of which are in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was one of the world's most cited researchers in 2021 in ‘Microbiology’ and ‘Molecular Biology and Genetics’ according to Clarivate Web of Science.