Prof. Karlsson completed his MD degree at The University of Iceland and a PhD degree at University College London. After three years as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Arthur Nienhuis at The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, Dr. Karlsson became Chief of The Molecular and Medical Genetics Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), NIH. In 1995, he was recruited as a full professor to Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden, to establish the division of Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy. He is also a founding and current member of the Lund Stem Cell Center. Prof. Karlsson’s research is focused on retroviral vector-based gene correction of hematopoietic cells from monogenetic disorders, for example Gaucher’s disease. The results from these studies led to the first gene therapy clinical trial for the treatment of Gaucher’s disease in 1995. He has also developed lentiviral vectors for gene correction of hematopoietic stem cells, and more recently developed preclinical gene therapy models for Gaucher’s disease and Diamond Blackfan anemia. An equal component of his research has been in the field of hematopoietic stem cell biology, where Dr. Karlsson focused on the mechanisms of hematopoietic stem cell expansion and maintenance. He has published >200 papers in peer-reviewed journals.