Hans H. Wandall

Primary fields of research

The Wandall group

overview
  Complex glycans participate in a wide variety of biological phenomena in both health and disease, such as cell differentiation, proliferation, migration, and morphogenesis. We investigate how glycans impinge on cells during development, inflammation, and cancer growth, and how to exploit this for early detection and treatment of disease. We explore and map glycogenes with new enzymatic technologies to turn genes on and off and identify new causes of disease. In addition, we seek to develop new methods to detect mutations in glycogenes and to investigate what changes these infer on the glycome and cellular processes using novel mass spec technologies. Insight into the glycome may lead to new diagnostic tools and better-targeted drugs and vaccines.

Current research

Copenhagen as the next generation leader in precise genome engineering: The use of a novel genome editing technology has the power to redesign most living organisms with exquisite precision, speed and cost-effectiveness. We have created the Copenhagen Consortium for Designer Organisms as a leading knowledge center on precise genetic engineering using nuclease-based technologies.

Probing function of O-glycosylation by an organotypic skin model This project is dedicated to the discovery and molecular dissection of functions of protein glycosylation with a particular emphasis on O-linked protein glycosylation.

Production of APC Targeted Allergy Vaccines (APCGlyVac)
We hypothesize that recombinant allergy vaccines with defined carbohydrates will target APCs and enhance efficiency, induce tolerance at lower dosages, and possibly reduce side-effects. This proposal aims to explore the potential for enhancing efficiency of recombinant allergens vaccines against major allergens by targeting these to APCs through specific glycosylation patterns.

Highlights

Novel proteome-wide discovery strategy for O-glycosylation sites on viral envelope proteins using herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) as a model. We identified 74 O-linked glycosylation sites on 8 out of the 12 HSV-1 envelope proteins. With the use of precise gene editing, we further demonstrate that elongated O-glycans are essential for HSV-1 in human HaCaT keratinocytes.

Bagdonaite I, Nordén R, Joshi HJ, Dabelsteen S, Nyström K, et al. (2015) A Strategy for O-Glycoproteomics of Enveloped  Viruses—the O-Glycoproteome of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1. PLoS Pathog 11(4): e1004784.

Uncovering the function of cancer associated glycan changes using simplified cells and simplified tissues. We demonstrate, with the use of well-defined cell systems generated by precise gene editing, that the aberrant O-glycophenotype by itself induces oncogenic features with enhanced growth and invasion.

Truncation of O-linked glycans down regulate intercellular adhesion and promote invasion of keratinocytes in organotypic cultures

See comment in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Sep 30;111(39):14009-10. Not so sweet malignant transformation. Baenziger JU.

Our work has been funded by the following agencies:
UCPH Excellence Programme (2016 ,Facul Funds), Danish Council for Science,
Danish Strategic Research Council,
Danish Medical Research Council,
The ,Facul Lundbeck Foundation,
Novo Nordisk Foundation,
Danish National Research Foundation
The Danish Council for Strategic Research, as represented by the Programme Commission on Strategic Growth Technologies

Collaborators

ALK-Abello A/S Cord Brakebusch, BRIC, Sally Dabelsteen, Department of Odontology of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Morten Frödin, BRIC, Michael Hollingsworth, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE Usha Menon & Aleksandra Gentry-Maharaj, Institute for Women's Health, University College London, UK. Sigvard Olofsson, University of Gothenburg Anders E. Pedersen, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Bent Larsen Petersen, Department of Plant- and Environmental science, Plant Glycobiology Søren Skov, Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, University of Copenhagen. Steffen Thiel, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus Anders Woetmann and Niels Ødum, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

CV

Hans H. Wandall 

Address:       Esperance Allé 18, 2920 Charlottenlund, Denmark
1999:           MD, Faculty of Health Sciences, Copenhagen  
2001:           Permission to practice independently as a physician.
2004:           PhD, Faculty of Health Sciences, Copenhagen (4^th of December)

Academic appointments
2014-           Professor, ICMM, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen
2012-           Vice-director at Copenhagen Center for Glycomics (CCG), Danish National Research Foundation.
2008-14        Associate Professor, ICMM, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen
2007-08        Research Associate Professor, ICMM, Faculty of Health, University of Copenhagen.
2006-07        Visiting Lecturer in Medicine, BWH, Harvard Medical School.
2006             Resident in Neurology, University Hospital Copenhagen
2004-07        Director, Platelet program, ZymeQuest, Inc.
2004-06        Research Fellow in Medicine, BWH, Harvard Medical School.
2001-04        PhD-studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. (Dec 4^th).
2000-01        Internship at Copenhagen University Hospital.
1999             Military duty, 11 months.
1994-95        Scholarship with financial support from The Danish Medical Research Council.
1990-94        Research assistant at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
1991-99        Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen. 

Awards:
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health Sciences, Young Scientist award 2003. Neurological Department, University Hospital Copenhagen, Awarded “Best Clinical Instructor Fall 2006”.
Sapere Aude, Research leader 2012.

Publications: 58 original papers (1 Nature Methods, 1 Nature Medicine, 3 PNAS, 3 Blood, 6 JBC, 1 EMBO, 1 Plos Path), 3 reviews, 3 book chapters, 1 issued patent, 2 patent appl.

Meetings and Abstracts:  Invited speaker to several meetings. Participated with poster and/or oral presentations to several meetings in the field of glycobiology, cancer, and hematology.

Referee for grant agencies, including the Welcome trust, British Medical Research Council, Medical Research Council, Ireland, Estonia Research Council.

Supervisor and teaching: Supervisor for 3 post docs, 7 PhD students (4 finalized); 5 master students; 3 scholar stipends; 10 bachelor students. Teaching experience from pre-graduate (medical students) and post-graduate programs (PhD courses and medical authorization courses (A-kurser). Opponent for 3 PhD/Doctor of Science.  

Referee for scientific journals including Nature Communication, Oncogene, JBC, Scientific Reports, Clin Chem, Br. J. Cancer, Plos. One, Oral Oncology, Glycobiology, Developmental biology, Int. Journal of Cancer.  

Possible conflicts of interest

Consultant for and founder of GO-therapeutics focusing on development of antibodies for immunotherapy of cancer (http://gotherapeutics.com). 

Consultant for early stage biotech initiative for the development of antibodies to various non-glycosylated targets. 

Established Wandall ApS to control consultant activities.