KARIN GAENSLER: LUCIA COORDNATOR AND PROFESSOR AT UCSF BRINGNG LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS IN THE MIDST OF THE PANDEMIC

Professor Karin Gaensler was a panelist in the SVENSK FORUM ZOOM event on Surviving the Pandemic last December. She is also a panelist on the Scandinavian Forum ZOOM Conference on Saturday April 10. At 11-1215. 
 
She has a very interesting profile and we asked her some questions:
 
1.How are you and your family doing in the pandemic? Tell us about your amazing family and show you happened to be born in US.
 
My family is doing well, but has of course been impacted by the pandemic. My daughter (Ninna-Gaensler-Debs) and son (Timothy Gaensler-Debs) have lost employment opportunities but are forging ahead with projects. Ninna is an audio journalist with a great interest in criminal justice reform. She has taught at San Quentinand USF, and is associated with the NPR affiliate, KALW here in San Francisco. Timothy has worked as a producer for Levi-Strauss and is currently pursuing a career in screen writing. My brother, Erik, is an interventional and neuro-radiologist here in the Bay Area. His wife, Shelley Marks, is a surgeon. They have a son, Nicholas, who has been an active participant in the Lucia celebrations since he was a toddler. Being on the frontlines of health care during the pandemic has been a daily reality for both my brother and sister-in-law, as well as for me. My brother and I were both born in Boston after my mother, Dr. Inga Lindgren, emigrated to this country after receiving her Docent in cardiology at the Karolinska Hospital. She was active in the Swedish community in Boston and was an inspiration to us.
 
 
2. You are widely known in our Swedish Community as our Lucia coordinator for SWEA. You gather up to 90 young girls and boys in our Swedish Church for training. Typically more than 1500 show up in St Mary’s Cathedral to enjoy your high quality productions at SWEA’s Christmas bazaar, probably unique in the world. How did you find this mission?
 
I have always loved singing in choirs and have done so since I was 10 years old. I participated in the Jeunesse choir in Vienna when I lived there for half a year in high school, and also sang in college choirs. My mother kept the Lucia tradition alive and we participated in celebrations in the Swedish community as we grew up. After I came to San Francisco in 1981, I learned about SWEA. As soon as my daughter was old enough, we joined the Lucia choir. Ninna and Timothy both participated until high school graduation. Uniting the SWEA, Young Scandinavians’ Club, and Swedish Church Lucia groups into one collaborative and inclusive choir seemed like the best way forward. I volunteered many years ago to take responsibility for leading the group with much help from other parents. The group has grown from about 20 to about 90 participants who now perform for thousands of people over the course of December each year.
 
 
3. Spreading light in the darkness is also the challenge we have to overcome in the pandemic. So much misinformation and conspiration theories! It’s time to listen and learn from the scientists and experts, Thoughts?
 
It has been a tragic and frightening process watching science and medicine being falsely represented and invalidated. This has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. Regaining the trust of people will be a challenge. It will require that we convince those who disperse misleading and false information, whatever their motives, to stop disseminating untruths and instead open themselves to learning about the science that underlies vaccine development and testing.
 
 
4. You arrived in SF after finishing your MD at Harvard n19981 Medical School - just in time for the AIDS epidemic in the early 80s. What were your first impressions?
 
When I first came to SF we were suddenly seeing healthy young men with pneumonia and other atypical infections and illnesses who quickly became critically ill and died. We had no idea whether this was an infectious process or a toxic effect from an unknown agent. It was frightening and devastating to see so many people so negatively impacted. There are certainly some parallels with the experience of the current pandemic.
 
 
5. Tell us briefly about your work as clinician and scientist at UCSF.
 
I am trained as a specialist in blood and bone marrow related malignancies, with a focus on leukemia and stem cell transplantation. The current focus in my laboratory is on developing a leukemia vaccine. The vaccine is made by genetically engineering patient’s leukemia cells to stimulate anti-leukemia immunological responses when administered as an irradiated cell vaccine. We are currently working on Pre-IND studies to develop the vaccine and hope to be able to test this novel therapeutic in a Phase 1 trial in the near future.