Johan Nordgren

Associate Professor, Docent

Docent in Medical Microbiology.

Virus-host interactions in infection and disease

My research in centered on disentangling the evolutionary interplay between virus and host and how this affect risk of infection and disease today.

I mainly study gastrointestinal viruses but also emerging and airborne viruses, often in a global health perspective. Through our studies we want to understand how evolution has shaped host and virus factors that mediate susceptibility and severity to an infection. We are furthermore working with different infection models for functional studies to understand pathogenic mechanisms on a molecular level.

Publications

Latest publications in LiU DiVA

2026

Rebeccah Ayako, Kirtika Patel, Isaac Ndede, Simeon K. Mining, Jonas Klingström, Johan Nordgren, Marie Larsson (2026)

Low Systemic IFN Response and High Viral Load Are Associated with COVID-19 Disease Severity in Unvaccinated Patients in Kenya, 2022-2023 COVID, Vol. 6, Article 51 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/covid6030051

Johan Nordgren, Richard Agren, Marie Hagbom, Hugo Zeberg, Lennart Svensson (2026)

Ancestral FUT2 genetic adaptation confers resistance to modern norovirus and rotavirus infections Current Opinion in Virology, Vol. 75, Article 101513 (Article, review/survey)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2026.101513

2025

Melissa Govender, Jyotirmoy Das, Francis Hopkins, Cecilia Svanberg, Johan Nordgren, Marie Hagbom, Jonas Klingström, Åsa Nilsdotter-Augustinsson, Yean K. Yong, Vijayakumar Velu, Sivadoss Raju, Johanna Sjöwall, Esaki M. Shankar, Sofia Nyström, Marie Larsson (2025)

Altered DNA Methylation Pattern Contributes to Differential Epigenetic Immune Signaling in the Upper Respiratory Airway of Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients Cells, Vol. 14, Article 1673 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells14211673

Johan Nordgren, Richard Agren, David Ziliang Hu, Magdalena Neijd, Ainash Childebayeva, Kay Prufer, Marie Hagbom, Lennart Svensson, Hugo Zeberg (2025)

Natural Selection of a Virus-Protective FUT2 Variant Following the Transition to Agriculture Molecular biology and evolution, Vol. 42, Article msaf243 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf243

Yan Cardoso Pimenta, Glenda Maria Santos Moreira, Waldemar da Silva Souza, Alberto Ignacio Olivares Olivares, Lennart Svensson, Jose Paulo Gagliardi Leite, Johan Nordgren, Marcia Terezinha Baroni de Moraes (2025)

Epidemiological profiles of norovirus genotypes in children with and without acute gastroenteritis from the northwestern Amazon region Infection, Genetics and Evolution, Vol. 134, Article 105804 (Article in journal)

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2025.105804

News

Protection against winter vomiting bug spread with arrival of agriculture

A genetic variant that protects against stomach virus infections appeared when humans began farming. This is shown by researchers at LiU and Karolinska Institutet, after analysing the genomes of 4,300 ancient individuals and cultivated “mini-guts”.

Female researcher studies a cell plate in a laboratory.

Long-term effects on the immune system following COVID-19

The more severe the COVID-19 infection, the slower the recovery of immune cells which are necessary for the activation of the immune system. Six months after severe COVID-19, a negative impact on several types of immune cells can still be seen.

Organisation

Division of Molecular Medicine and Virology (MMV)

At the division, the research involves studies on the molecular biology level as well as studies of biological effects on cells, on tissue, and organisms. We are also involved in medical and biomedical education programs.

Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV)

What characterizes the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) is the wide breadth of research and education. BKV is one of the largest departments at LiU with affiliation mainly to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.