News archive

A Working Lab is expanding its activity with a new hub for co-working and shared laboratory environments at Alfred Nobels Allé 10, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2022. Students, researchers and university employees will be able to meet here and find ways to collaborate and innovate within the field of life science.

The treatment of serious prodromal cervical cancer, CIN3, can cause problems during later pregnancy amongst women of fertile age. A new registry study from Karolinska Institutet shows a higher risk of several adverse pregnancy outcomes after such treatment, but the risks have declined over time and the increased risk of infant death no longer exists. The study, which included a large number of births in Sweden over a 46-year period, is published in The Annals of Internal Medicine.

Three research group leaders at Karolinska Institutet receive European Research Council Proof of Concept (ERC PoC) 2022 grants, which are awarded to researchers who already have funding from the ERC and now wish to develop the innovative potential of their discoveries. Projects funded at KI include working towards commercialisation of a new sequencing method and scaling up production of artificial spider-silk textiles.

Using novel analytical technique developed at KI, the team of scientists led by Roman Zubarev found in seal bones twice as much deuterium as in sea water; extra deuterium cannot come from seals’ diet.

An international team of scientists, including from Karolinska Institutet, has discovered a means of identifying the risk of breast and ovarian cancer by analysing cell samples from the cervix. By measuring epigenetic changes in cervical samples from over a thousand women, the researchers have found two unique signatures for breast and ovarian cancer. The results are presented in two papers in the journal Nature Communications.

Thanks to a groundbreaking study, leading migraine scientists can better understand the biological basis of migraine and its subtypes and could speed up the search for new treatment of the condition, which affects over a billion individuals wordwide. The new findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics, uncovered more of the genetic architecture of migraine subtypes than was previously known.

The StratNeuro board has reviewed the neuroscience submissions to the SLL call “Kliniska Forskare” (2020) and decided to support Mikael Tiger with SEK 500,000, for his project entitled "Optimized treatment for depression: mechanisms of action and response markers and antidepressive effect versus side effects".

The bridging grant is a funding initiative where StratNeuro, and other strategic research areas (SFOs) at KI, award funding to promising researchers with outstanding scientific merits, giving them the opportunity to consolidate their research.

Carl Johan Sundberg, Professor at the Department of physiology and pharmacology and Head of the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) at Karolinska Institutet, has been awarded the medal "8th size suspended by a blue ribbon" from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf, for his "outstanding contributions as a researcher and educator in health and exercise" .

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Gothenburg have found another piece of the puzzle in the treatment of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new case report, published in JCO Precision Oncology, describes the successful targeted treatment of a boy with neuroblastoma and a specific mutation.

A digital 1-day meeting attended by 300 participants brought neuroscience researchers from across Europe together to reflect on both progress to date and plans for the future for the collaborative European University Initiative (EUI) focusing on neurochallenges. Karolinska Institutet is one of eight original parnters.

The late professor Sten Orrenius will be honored with a research symposium on 14 February 2022 - at the 85th anniversary of his birth.

Congratulations to Rimma Axelsson, who was appointed Professor of Nuclear Medicine at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, on February 1, 2022.

As a strategic investment, the Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank will be allocated SEK 12 million for whole-genome sequencing of tumor and blood samples not yet analysed in the sample collection. The annual grant is increased to SEK 19 million for 2022. The GMS Childhood Cancer project receives multi-year support of a total of SEK 24 million. A project coordinator to enhance collaboration with the pediatric leukemia sample collection in Uppsala will be appointed, as a further strategic investment.

Two Karolinska Institutet researchers are part of projects awarded grants from the European Innovation Council (EIC), marking KI’s first contribution from this EU funding program since its launch last March. The researchers will receive a total of close to 1.15 million euros (11.8 million Swedish kronor) that will go toward research projects on epilepsy and chip-based nanoscopy.

KI researcher Myriam Aouadi is awarded the Leif C. Groop award for her research about the mechanisms behind the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes.

An international team of researchers led by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that a cell type in the central nervous system known as oligodendrocytes might have a different role in the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) than previously thought. The findings, published in the journal Neuron, could open for new therapeutical approaches to MS.

A new study is due to examine whether the post-infarction prognosis can be improved by treating the stomach ulcer bacterium helicobacter pylori. The study is to be led by Robin Hofmann, cardiologist and researcher at the Department of Clinical Research and Education, Stockholm South General (Söder) Hospital, Karolinska Institutet.

The combination of a novel blood test and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can reduce overdiagnosis of low-risk cancers as well as societal costs in prostate cancer screening, according to a cost-effectiveness study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal European Urology. The results provide support for organised prostate cancer testing in Sweden, researchers say.

Medication for Parkinson's disease reduces many of the symptoms that affect patients, but often the problems associated with impaired balance and increased risk of falls and injuries remain. A new study in the journal NPJ Parkinson's Disease provides an in-depth picture of balance training as a treatment for Parkinson's. The partly disappointing results suggest that exercise programmes may need to be intensified or personalized to a greater extent, and that more research is required.

Professor Emeritus Tomas Hökfelt is awarded the Arvid Carlsson Foundation’s major prize for outstanding research 2022. In addition, KI researcher Nitya Jayaram-Lindström and Simon Cervenka, professor at Uppsala University and affiliated researcher at KI, are awarded the foundation’s prize for prominent young researchers.

Hi Malin Freidle, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS. On February 11 you will defend your thesis ”Motor and cognitive abilities in Parkinson’s disease with a brain activity perspective: performance at baseline and the effects of a balance training program”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Researchers from LIME have recently published two reports for Region Stockholm in which they investigate the use of telemedicine in primary healthcare during first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There has to date been no reliable objective method of diagnosing tinnitus. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet now show that brainstem audiometry can be used to measure changes in the brain in people with constant tinnitus. The study has been published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) has today decided to confer honorary doctorates upon HRH Prince Daniel, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan and Professor Shinhiro Takeda. The formal ceremony will take place in conjunction with a graduation ceremony to be held in Stockholm City Hall (COVID permitting) on 29 April.

Nagihan Bostanci’s term commences in June 2022 and will serve as President of the group during 2023-2024.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with its two main disease entities Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, is a chronic and relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The highest prevalence of IBD is found in the Western world, and the lowest in developing countries.

Alexander Klaréus and Dana Samiean are Medicinska Föreningen (medical association) and Odontologiska Föreningens (dental association) “new" presidents for the student unions. Both already served as union presidents during 2021. We asked them about the plans for the new year, 2022.

The omicron variant can partly evade the antibody response provided by vaccination or infection with previous variants of SARS-CoV-2. However, T cells still recognise omicron, scientists at Karolinska Institutet report in a study published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Do you want to become a student representative of the Pick-up service and help welcoming international students to KI and Stockholm? This is your opportunity!

Hi Emilia Schwertner, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On January 21 you will defend your thesis ”Factors associated with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

WHO experts are now recommending using the drug baricitinib to treat severe COVID-19 infection. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet were involved in the early analysis of the drug’s efficacy against the disease: “I myself would’ve benefited from it when I got COVID-19,” says adjunct professor Ali Mirazimi.

The Swedish Skeptics Association’s (VoF – Föreningen Vetenskap och Folkbildning) award "Folk Educator of the Year" for 2021 is awarded to Maria Ahlsén and Jessica Norrbom for their work on the book and podcast Frisk utan flum (Health in a Nutshell).

Mood and anxiety disorders are some of the biggest contributors to morbidity worldwide, and may be lethal. Appropriate treatment is therefore paramount and antidepressants is the first choice of pharmacological treatment for these disorders, with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) as the most common type in the Western world.

There has been a road traffic accident. Several cars, a lorry and a bus are involved. Almost a hundred people are injured, resources are limited, and the nearest hospital is a long way away. It might not look like that when a group of around ten teachers sit behind their computers at the Centre for Research in Health Care in Disasters at the Department of Global Public Health, but that is what has happened. Although, it has happened virtually, inside the computer.

Exercise causes the body to release hundreds of signalling molecules that improve our health in different ways. Now, an international research team including researchers from Karolinska Institutet have mapped how these signals are released by different organs in mice following exercise at different times of the day. Their atlas of exercise metabolism, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, may in the long term contribute to more effective exercise therapies that are timed to the body clock.

KI researchers have together with international collaborators completed a comprehensive international validation of artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnosing and grading prostate cancer. The study, published in Nature Medicine, shows that AI systems can identify and grade prostate cancer in tissue samples from different countries equally well as pathologists. The results suggest AI systems are ready to be responsibly introduced as a complementary tool in prostate cancer care, researchers say.

An international metastudy led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has identified a specific gene variant that protects against severe COVID-19 infection. The researchers managed to pinpoint the variant by studying people of different ancestries, a feat they say highlights the importance of conducting clinical trials that include people of diverse descents. The results are published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in USA, have mapped how genes work together to cause cardiovascular disease. The study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, suggests that that nearly 60 percent of the risk associated with coronary artery disease may be explained by regulatory gene networks.

Hi Linn Öijerstedt, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics, NVS. On January 20 you will defend your thesis ”Biomarkers in frontotemporal dementia : findings from the GENFI study”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

From our first breath, our lungs are exposed to microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses. Thanks to immune cells in the lungs, so-called macrophages, we are protected from most infections at an early age. In a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, researchers from Karolinska Institutet show how lung macrophages develop; new findings that can help to reduce organ damage and that are significant for the continued development of important lung disease treatments.

Anita Göndör’s group has identified a new mechanism underlying the pathological over-expression of cancer genes. The results, which are published in Nature Communications show that signals in the environment of the cancer cell exploit a CTCF-bound super-enhancer to recruit cancer genes to the nuclear pore in a multistep process that involves a non-coding RNA. This discovery provides new opportunities for targeting overactive cancer genes without interfering with their functions in normal cells.

In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified the presence of a specific connection between a protein and an lncRNA molecule in liver cancer. By increasing the presence of the lncRNA molecule, the fat depots of the tumor cell decrease, which causes the division of tumor cells to cease, and they eventually die. The study, published in the journal Gut, contributes to increased knowledge that can add to a better diagnosis and future cancer treatments.

Schizophrenia and eating disorders (EDs) are complex traits with considerable somatic and psychiatric morbidity, affecting 0.4-1% and 9% of the population, respectively. Risk for both is predominantly from genetic sources – 64-81% for schizophrenia and 41-83% for EDs. Despite distinct diagnostic criteria and few common symptoms, significant genetic correlations between schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa (AN) have been identified in several recent genomic studies.

The research committee at the Swedish Cancer Society has just named Henrik Grönberg “Cancer Researcher of the Year 2022” for his efforts in prostate cancer research. Henrik Grönberg’s research has contributed to earlier detection of prostate cancer and that unnecessary examinations can be avoided.

People with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of stroke and slower recovery from it. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown that neurological recovery from stroke is significantly improved in mice with obesity and diabetes who achieve weight loss to the extent that glucose metabolism returns to normal levels. The results are published in the scientific journal Cardiovascular Diabetology and may have clinical relevance for stroke rehabilitation in type 2 diabetes.

KI researcher Marcus Buggert has been awarded the prestigious ERC Starting Grant for his research on human cell-mediated immunity against virus diseases. In all, the European Research Council through this call will invest EUR 619 million in 397 young research leaders.

Very few proteins in the body have a change that makes them unique compared to the corresponding proteins in Neanderthals and apes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now studied one such protein, glutathione reductase, which protects against oxidative stress. They show that the risk for inflammatory bowel disease and vascular disease is increased several times in people carrying the Neanderthal variant.

What does it mean to admit yourself as a patient? Maria Smitmanis Lyle, a PhD student at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Coordinator at the Centre for Psychiatry Research, who researches self-admission for children and adolescents, explains.

Students choose Karolinska Institutet to receive the best education. The proportion of foreign-born students is increasing, as is the proportion of younger students and male students. KI's website is the main source of recruitment. All this and more are shown in the 2021 Student Survey.