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Information about the corona virus for staff and students

Minister visited KI: impressed by KI’s adaptability

Matilda Ernkrans, minister for Higher Education and Research, visited KI on 23 October. She met students, faculty, researchers and the university management, who described how they had adapted to the ongoing pandemic.

Study shows how exercise stalls cancer growth through the immune system

People with cancer who exercise generally have a better prognosis than inactive patients. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found a likely explanation of why exercise helps slow down cancer growth in mice: Physical activity changes the metabolism of the immune system’s cytotoxic T cells and thereby improves their ability to attack cancer cells. The study is published in the journal eLife.

Improved survival after obesity operation in patients with previous myocardial infarction

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital have studied the risk of additional myocardial infarctions and early death in severely obese patients who undergo metabolic surgery following a myocardial event. The registry study covering 1,018 individuals shows a lower risk of additional myocardial infarctions and improved survival that cannot be simply attributed to the loss of weight. The study is published in the journal Circulation.

Newly discovered mechanism controls cancer cell growth and metabolism

In a new study published in the journal Cell Death & Differentiation researchers at Karolinska Institutet have conducted a translational study that identified a new mechanism for controlling the breakdown of glucose in several different cancer forms. The discovery could lead to new therapeutic strategies aimed to reduce cancer growth.

The final diary entries by polar adventurer Andrée

A diary containing the final entries by polar adventurer Andrée is now to be subjected for the first time to analysis using modern techniques. It is hoped this will solve once and for all the mystery of what caused the deaths of the expedition members on an island in the Arctic Ocean in 1897.
“We’re getting lots of new information, it’s really exciting,” says Bea Uusma, who is leading the project at Medical History and Heritage, Karolinska Institutet.

Stockholm trio sets up in Brussels

A year has passed now since Karolinska Institutet, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Stockholm University formed the university alliance Stockholm trio. Together, the three academic institutions seek to develop and promote the international research and education environment of the Stockholm region, and have, to this end, established a joint office in Brussels, overseen for the time being by Dan Andrée.

KAW donates SEK 3.7 billion to life science research

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) launches a new research initiative and donates SEK 3.1 billion over 12 years to support data-driven life science and SEK 600 million to extend the existing funding to Science for Life Laboratory and to the Wallenberg Centers for Molecular Medicine. Many new research positions will be established.

SEK 10 million for research on myelodysplastic syndrome

The Tobias Foundation grant in 2020 has been awarded to Eva Hellström Lindberg and Magnus Tobiasson, both researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The grant is awarded over a five-year period and will support research on early detection of relapse after stem cell transplantation for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome.

Study explains the process that exacerbates MS

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) gradually develop increasing functional impairment. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now found a possible explanation for the progressive course of the disease in mice and how it can be reversed. The study, which is published in Science Immunology, can prove valuable to future treatments.

Even mild fatty liver disease is linked to increased mortality

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD, affects nearly one in four adults in Europe and the U.S. Earlier research has demonstrated an increased risk of death in patients with NAFLD and advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S. show that mortality increases with disease severity, but even mild fatty liver disease is linked to higher mortality. The findings have been published in the scientific journal Gut.

Nobel Prize 2020

KI researchers comment on the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: “Fantastic, at last!”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Scientists have decided to award the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna. Here, KI researchers who uses the method in their own research comment on this year’s prize. “It’s what we’ve been waiting for,” says Fredrik Lanner.

Nobel Laureate’s response to congratulatory text message from KI: “Incredible!”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice for their discoveries of the Hepatitis C virus.

The new coronavirus

Neandertal gene variant increases risk of severe COVID-19

A study published in Nature shows that a segment of DNA that causes their carriers to have an up to three times higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neandertals. The study was conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Strong activation of anti-bacterial T cells linked to severe COVID-19

A type of anti-bacterial T cells, so-called MAIT cells, are strongly activated in people with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden that is published in the journal Science Immunology. The findings contribute to increased understanding about how our immune system responds against COVID-19 infection.

Immunological cause of severe COVID-19 identified

More than 10 percent of young and previously healthy people who develop severe COVID-19 have misguided antibodies that attack the immune system itself, and another 3.5 percent carry a specific genetic mutation. This is according to new research published in Science by an international consortium involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy was not associated with complications in neonates

In a study published in JAMA researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have examined the association between a positive SARS-CoV-2 test during pregnancy and complications in mothers and their newborn babies. Almost two out of three pregnant women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic and the researchers found no higher prevalence of complications during delivery or of ill-health in the neonates. However, preeclampsia was more common in infected women.

Find out more at the COVID-19 Resource Hub

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet are responding to the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, through a myriad of initiatives. For more news and features on the work being conducted at Karolinska Institutet, including vaccine and drug development, please see the COVID-19 Resource Hub.

Top-publications list

A limited selection of recent publications in high impact journals to which researchers at KI have contributed.

Dopamine regulates synchronicity in the activity of striatal neurons
Polysynaptic inhibition between striatal cholinergic interneurons shapes their network activity patterns in a dopamine-dependent manner, Matthijs C. Dorst, et al, Nature Communications, October 2020.

Promising results in case study of COVID-19 drug candidate APN01
Human recombinant soluble ACE2 in severe COVID-19, Ali Mirazimi et al, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, September 2020.

New knowledge on the effect of periodic fasting in over-weight men
Time-restricted feeding alters lipid and amino acid metabolite rhythmicity without perturbing clock gene expression, Lundell LS, Nature Communications, September 2020.

More high impact publications

KI in the media

The Macchiarini case: timeline

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View a summary of the events and decisions in the Macchiarini case.

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Professors' inauguration 2020

On 15 October 2020, fourteen new professors were inaugurated at Karolinska Institutet in solemn forms in Aula Medica. The professors' inauguration ceremony is one of the highlights of the academic year of our university. This year due to the pandemic, the ceremony was partly held digitally.

President‘s blog

Ten questions (plus one extra) for KI’s new chairman of the university board

In a sense, Göran Stiernstedt will have come full circle when he takes up office as KI chairperson on 1 May 2020. He once took his medical degree at KI, and now he’s back.

Spotlight on COVID-19

In early 2020, a new coronavirus was identified in China, and it has now caused a worldwide pandemic. The official name for this virus is SARS-CoV-2, and the disease that is caused by the virus is called COVID-19. Here we present news and features about KI's efforts to stop the new coronavirus.

Meet our researchers

What causes depression and why is fat cells so hard to study? These are some of the questions that researchers at KI are interested in. Find interviews and articles prevously published here at the news site or in our popular-science magazine, Medicinsk Vetenskap.

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