Ingemar Björkhem go his education at the Karolinska Institute and he had positions as professor of “biochemical research on atherosclerosis” and senior physicican in Clinical Chemistry during the years 1986-2008. He is a senior professor at the division of clinical chemistry, department of laboratory medicine, at the Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge since 2012. At present he work about 70% with research.

Ingemar Björkhem worked on different aspects of cholesterol  since 1963 when he started PhD studies. In particular he have been involved in the elucidation of the mechanisms and regulation of the enzymes involved in the degradation of cholesterol into bile acids. During the last two decades he have focused on the regulatory mechanisms behind cholesterol homeostasis in the brain, and in particular the role of oxysterols. We made the key discovery that side-chain oxidized oxysterols , in contrats to cholesterol, are able to pass the blood-brain barrier. We have shown that these oxysterols are important for regulation of cholesterol synthesis, glucose uptake by the brain, generation of beta amyloid and several other processes. We utilize unique mouse models as well as clinical materials in our research involving collaborations with different clinical disciplines.