Kirsten Fischer Lindahl

Background

Kirsten Fischer Lindahl was born on August 11, 1948, in Rønne on Bornholm, Denmark. She was the daughter of Poul and Bodil (Jørgensen) Fischer. Both parents worked in medically related professions, and their professional background helped direct her toward the natural sciences and biomedical research.

Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea with Rønne as its principal town. Lindahl later moved from Denmark to the United States for graduate study and became an American citizen in 2001 while retaining her Danish national background.

Education

Lindahl studied biochemistry at the University of Copenhagen and received a Master of Science degree in 1973. The University of Copenhagen, founded in 1479, is Denmark's oldest university and a major center of scientific and medical education.

She continued at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, receiving a Ph.D. in immunobiology in 1975 for research on mechanisms of transplant rejection. The University of Wisconsin's research tradition combined laboratory biology with agricultural, medical, and life-science investigation. She also undertook postdoctoral study at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia before joining European immunology institutes.

Career

Lindahl began her research career with postdoctoral work at the Institute of Genetics of the University of Cologne from 1976 to 1978. The University of Cologne, founded in 1388 and re-established in 1919, was a major German research university with established traditions in genetics and the life sciences. During this period she held a fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization.

From 1978 to 1985, she was a member of staff at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland. The institute was an international center for experimental immunology whose research culture emphasized cellular and molecular studies of immune recognition. There Lindahl developed an independent program using mouse genetics to investigate the major histocompatibility complex and the cell-surface molecules that guide immune-cell recognition.

In 1985, Lindahl joined the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, then known as the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas, as senior faculty in microbiology and biochemistry and as an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. UT Southwestern was a developing medical research center in Dallas, while the Howard Hughes Medical Institute supported investigator-led biomedical research. She served as an associate professor from 1985 to 1992 and as a professor from 1992 until her retirement from the faculty in 2003.

Her research defined the molecular and cellular biology of several non-classical major histocompatibility antigens in mice. Her work included the discovery and molecular characterization of a maternally transmitted antigen, studies of antigen presentation by non-classical MHC molecules, analysis of MHC-linked genes, and identification of recombinational hotspots in mouse genomes. She also reviewed research for the National Institutes of Health immunobiology study section from 1989 to 1994 and for the National Science Foundation eukaryotic genetics panel from 1986 to 1989. UT Southwestern currently lists her as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Immunology.

Achievements

• Lindahl discovered and helped define the molecular basis of a maternally transmitted cell-surface antigen in mice, work that clarified how a non-classical major histocompatibility molecule could be recognized by cytotoxic T cells.

• Her research established important functions of non-classical major histocompatibility complex class I antigens in immune recognition and antigen presentation.

• She contributed to the identification and analysis of recombinational hotspots in mouse genomes, linking genetic recombination patterns to the organization of the mammalian major histocompatibility complex.

Works

• journal article

  • Genomic organization of the mammalian MHC

    (Co-authored with Attila Kumanovics and Toyoyuki Takada; t...)

    2003
  • Cytoplasmic Inheritance of a Cell Surface Antigen in the Mouse

    (Co-authored with Barbara Hausmann; the study examined the...)

    1983
  • Hotspots of homologous recombination in mammalian genomes

    (Co-authored with Michael Steinmetz and Yasushi Uematsu; t...)

    1987
  • Functional expression of murine V2R pheromone receptors involves selective association with the M10 and M1 families of MHC class Ib molecules

    (Co-authored study showing selective association between m...)

    2003
  • Murine MHC class Ib gene, H2-M2, encodes a conserved surface-expressed glycoprotein

    (Co-authored study examining the sequence, conservation, a...)

    2004
  • The mouse major histocompatibility complex: some assembly required

    (Co-authored review of the organization and evolutionary a...)

    1999
  • Active MHC class Ib genes in rat are pseudogenes in the mouse

    (Co-authored comparative study of class Ib genes in rat an...)

    2004
  • Structure and expression of MHC class Ib genes of the central M region in rat and mouse: M4, M5, and M6

    (Co-authored comparative analysis of the structure and exp...)

    2008
  • A new H-2-linked class I gene whose expression depends on a maternally inherited factor

    (Co-authored with Barbara Hausmann and Verne M. Chapman; t...)

    1983
  • Human lymphocytes recognise mouse alloantigens

    (Co-authored with Fritz H. Bach; an early study of lymphoc...)

    1975

• review article

  • Good copy, bad copy: choosing animal models for HLA-linked diseases

    (Co-authored review discussing how comparative major histo...)

    2004

Views

Lindahl has emphasized the importance of supporting women at career stages where advancement can become difficult. Her charitable activities and public comments connect scientific achievement with mentoring, professional guidance, and the creation of opportunities for women in research.

Membership

Lindahl has been associated with the American Association of Immunologists, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Genetics Society of America, and the British Society for Immunology. These organizations promote research communication, professional standards, and collaboration across immunology, cell biology, genetics, and related biomedical fields.

• American Association of Immunologists , United States

• American Society for Cell Biology , United States

• Genetics Society of America , United States

• British Society for Immunology , United Kingdom

Personality

Lindahl has been described in institutional accounts as a demanding editor and committed mentor who trained students and postdoctoral fellows. She has also expressed a sustained concern for helping women advance into senior scientific positions.

Quotes from others about the person

• Kathleen M. Gibson, president and chief executive officer of the Southwestern Medical Foundation, described Lindahl as a role model, mentor, and supporter of women's advancement in science.

Connections

Lindahl married the German-American biochemist Johann Deisenhofer on June 19, 1989. Deisenhofer received the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction center. The couple met through their scientific work at UT Southwestern and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Her parents were Poul Fischer and Bodil (Jørgensen) Fischer. In later life, Lindahl and Deisenhofer divided their time between Dallas, Texas, and Jackson, Wyoming, and supported programs benefiting women in scientific careers.

Father:

Poul Fischer

Worked in a medically related profession.

Mother:

Bodil (Jørgensen) Fischer

Worked in a medically related profession.

husband:

Johann Deisenhofer

Biochemist and 1988 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry; Lindahl married him in 1989.

References

• Kirsten Fischer-Lindahl, Ph.D. - Faculty Profile Official UT Southwestern profile identifying Lindahl as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Immunology and recording her 1975 graduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Dr. Fischer-Lindahl Establishes Gift for Women in Science and Joins The Heritage Society Institutional account of Lindahl's Danish upbringing, education, research at Cologne and Basel, career at UT Southwestern and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, retirement, mentoring, citizenship, marriage, and philanthropy.
  2019
• Deisenhofer, Johann (Chemistry 1988) and Kirsten Fischer Lindahl National Museum of American History archival reference for an interview with Johann Deisenhofer and Kirsten Fischer Lindahl.