Ivanka Savic Berglund - Curriculum Vitae#

Short summary of scientific work

Dr savic is chief clinitian and tenured professor of Neurology at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, with special focus on brain imaging, cerebral gender differences, epilepsy and stress. She was the first to discover Flumazenil PET as a novel and superior marker of epileptogenic regions in patients with severe epilepsy. Later, she was the first to study brain resposes to human pheromones and odors, and to map human olfactory system in the brain. This research line led her to investigate cerebral differences in relation to sex, sexual orientation and gender. Lately she started to investigate the own body – self processes in the brain , again using advanced brain imaging technology. Dr Savic has published several groundbraking studies in all these fields of neuroscience, which have raised a lot of attention among the scientific community and the public media. During the last five years she has initiated yet another timely research line, studying the effects of psychosocial (primarily occupational) stress on the human brain. Her research activity and the international scientific as well as clinical impact of this activity is reflected in the publication list with high ranked journals, as well as in many interviews in major media such as CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, the Economis, Scientific American, et cet.

The combination of deep knowledge in brain imaging methodology, human epilepsy, stress physiology and body / mind disconnection provides a unique context for the planed studies of so called functional neurologic disorders to be conducted at UCLA, and in collaboration with her team at the Karolinska University Hospital and Institute.

A selection of major publications:

Savic I, Persson A, Roland P, Pauli S, Sedvall G, Widén L. In-vivo demonstration of reduced benzodiazepine receptorbinding in human epileptic foci. Lancet. 1988 Oct 15;2(8616):863-6. PMID:1670787

Savic I, Lindström P, Gulyás B, Halldin C, Andrée B, Farde L.Limbic reductions of 5-HT1A receptor binding in human temporal lobe epilepsy . Neurology. 2004 Apr 27;62(8):1343-51. PMID: 15111672

Savic I, Widén L, Stone-Elander S. Feasibility of reversing benzodiazepine tolerance with flumazenil. Lancet. 1991

Jan 19;337(8734):133-7. PMID:1670787

Savic I, Gulyas B, Larsson M, Roland P Olfactory functions are mediated by parallel and hierarchical processing. Neuron. 2000 Jun;26(3):735-45. PMID:10896168

Savic I, Berglund H, Gulyas B, Roland P Smelling of odorous sex hormone-like compounds causes sex-differentiated hypothalamic activations in humans. Neuron. 2001 Aug 30;31(4):661-8. PMID:11545724.

Savic I, Berglund H, Lindström P. Brain response to putative pheromones in homosexual men.Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 May 17;102(20):7356-61. Epub 2005 May 9.PMID:1588337

Berglund H, Lindström P, Savic I. Brain response to putative pheromones in lesbian women.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 May 23;103(21):8269-74. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0600331103. Epub 2006 May16.PMID: 16705035

Savic I, Lindström PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. .Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jul 8;105(27):9403-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0801566105. Epub 2008 Jun 16.

Lentini E, Kasahara M, Arver S, Savic I Sex differences in the human brain and the impact of sex chromosomes and sex hormones.. Cereb Cortex. 2013 Oct;23(10):2322-36. PMID:22891037

Savic I. Structural changes of the brain in relation to occupational stress.. Cereb Cortex. 2015 Jun;25(6):1554-64. PMID: 24747359

Savic I, Perski A, Osika W. MRI shows that exhaustion syndromed due to chronic occupational stress is associated with partially reversible cerebral changes. Cereb Cortex. 2018 Mar 1;28(3):894-906. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhw413. PMID: 28108490.

Savic I. MRS Shows Regionally Increased Glutamate Levels among Patients with Exhaustion Syndrome Due to Occupational Stress. Cereb Cortex. 2020 May 18;30(6):3759-3770. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhz340. PubMed PMID: 32195540.

Manzouri A, Savic I.Possible Neurobiological Underpinnings of Homosexuality and Gender Dysphoria.Cereb Cortex. 2019. PMID: 30084980

Majid DSA, Burke SM, Manzouri A, Moody TD, Dhejne C, Feusner JD, Savic I. Neural Systems for Own-body Processing Align with Gender Identity Rather Than Birth-assigned Sex..Cereb Cortex. 2020 May 14;30(5):2897-2909. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhz282.PMID: 31813993

Positions and Honors

Positions and Employment

• 1979 - 1984 Fellow, Neurology, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm
  
• 1984 - 1986 Specialist, Neurology, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm
  
• 1997 - 1991 Clinical Neurophysiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm
  
• 1992 - 1994 Specialist, Neurology, South Hospital, Stockholm
  
• 1995 - 1996 Post Doc, Dept. of Neurology, Epilepsy Center, (Prof. Jerome Engel), UCLA, Los Angeles
  
• 1997 Consultant Neurologist, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm
  
• 1999 - 2012 Associate Professor, Neurology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
  
• 2012 Obtained position as professor and chair of Neurology in Uppsala University, Dep of Neurology: Declined this position, as I preferred to stay at the Karolinska Institute
  
• 2013 Professor Neurology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
  
• 2018 Adjunct Professor of Neurology, UCLA

Academic distinctions

• 1989 Young researcher prize in Clinical Neurophysiology
  
• 2000 Edit Follin’s prize in Neurology in Sweden
  
• 2004 - 2010 6 years position as Elite Research Leader at Karolinska Institute
  
• Selected member of Academia Research for prosperous women in science in Europe, organized by Gemain chancellor Angela Merkel
  
• One of 50 most prominent publications in all sciences, rated by Scientific American
  

Commissions of trust

• 1995 - 2004 Board member of the Committee for Diagnostic Strategies, International League Against Epilepsy
  
• 2007 - 2008 Board member of the Karolinska Institutet Strategy group for equal career opportunities
  
• 2003 - 2009 Adjunct board member of Karolinska Institutet’s Center for Gender related Medicine *2007 - 2016 Member of the executive committee and one of the initiators of Stockholm Brain Institute Berzelius Center of Excellence in Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience)
  

Organization of International Symposia (only some are included here)

• 2003 Inauguration of Center for Gender related Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
  
• 2005 Organizer of Nobel mini symposium ‘ Sex and the Brain mechanisms and implications’ at Karolinska Institutet
  
• 2008 Member of the Program Committee of the Symposium Days in Molecular Medicine with MIT, Nobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet
  
• 2009 One of the organizers of the 19th Word Congress for Sexual Health
  
• 2012 Scientific organizer of the ISOT meeting on olfaction
  
• 2010 Co-organizer Nobel Symposium in Cognitive Neuroscience, 2010 (selected in competition for the
  
• 200-years anniversary of the Karolinska Institute)
  
• 2015 Hosted this years first Nobel Lecture given by Prof Itzhak Fried, UCLA
  
• 2015 Palo Alto, organized Workshop on Sex Differences in Neuronal Networks

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/41344683/?sort=date&direction=ascending
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1TGCcfStY4pkr/bibliography/public
Google scholar: 151 publication, 7028 citations, H index 46

Ongoing Research Support

• NIH (Ro1H S087712-01A1) Savic Berglund, Ivanka (equally shared PI with Dr. Jamie Feusner, UCLA), 08012017-07312021 Gender identity and own body perception, implications for the neurobiology of gender dysphoria; Administrative supplement associated to this grant to add the aspect of sexual orientation.
  
• NIH/NIBIB, 1R21 EB030851-01 (Feusner, J PI Savic I, co-PI) Personalized 3D avatar tool development for measurement of body perception across gender identities
  
• Swedish Research Council Savic Berglund, Ivanka (PI) 01012016-12312018- extended to 12312020. Studies of the neurobiology of gender identity. The goal of the study is to investigate structural and functional correlates to the perception of gender identity in cis gendered and trans gendered populations.
  
• Swedish Research Council Savic Berglund, Ivanka (PI), Studies of the neurobiology of gender identity. 2021-2023
  
• AFA-insurance. Ivanka Savic Berglund (PI) 0101217-01312020 Studies of effects of chronic occupational stress on the brain. This study aims to define occupational burnout from a neurobiological perspective and find new treatment strategies.
  

Completed Research Support

• Research Council for Health, Working Life and Wellfare, Savic Berglund, Ivanka (PI) 01012008-0112312014, and 01012016-12312017. Studies of effects of chronic occupational stress on the brain.
  
• Swedish Research Council. Savic Berglund, Ivanka (PI), 010195-01312013. Imaging studies of the human limbic system Role (PI)