Sven Hoffner

Sven Hoffner is a senior researcher at the Department of Global Public Health at the Karolinska Institute, and the former Director of the WHO Supranational TB Reference Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Sweden in Stockholm. He is also an adjunct professor at San Diego State University in California, where he participates in NIH-granted research on molecular mechanisms for drug resistance in M. tuberculosis.

He has extensive research experience in mycobacteriology focusing on different aspects of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). His research includes development and transmission of resistant strains, development, and characterization of new improved methods for the detection of (resistant) M tuberculosis in low/middle-income countries, implementation of new molecular techniques for improved and rapid diagnosis of mycobacterial infections, and resistant TB, molecular epidemiology, and drug development. He is a well know and respected researcher in his field and has supervised several Swedish and international research students.

His research is published in around 250 scientific publications. He also has a long history of working with WHO where he facilitated several workshops and contributed to guidelines and recommendations related to the control of DR-TB. He is presently a consultant at WHO- EURO where he supports laboratory strengthening of TB-laboratories in the WHO European region. Through his research and as responsible for the WHO SRL in Stockholm he developed an extensive international network and was the Swedish primary investigator in a recently finalized major research collaboration on DR-TB between KI and China.