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In a review of existing research, commissioned by a committee of the European Parliament, a group of European researchers has identified benefits of organic food production for human health. The researchers recommend the parliament to consider giving priority to certain organic production practices and their use also in conventional agriculture.

Investigators at Karolinska Institutet have identified a potential therapeutic target for treatment of obesity-associated metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis. The work, performed in collaboration with scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and Danderyd Hospital, is published in Cell Reports.

Four researchers at KI will receive grants from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, committed up to the next 2–3 years. The purpose is to identify and support high quality, innovative research that has the potential to provide new healthcare solutions.

[Edit: This text was written in 2017. Prof. Anders Ekbom passed away on July 29, 2024.] Professor and physician Anders Ekbom has been appointed acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Karolinska Institutet from 1 January 2017. He succeeds Henrik Grönberg, who has been acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor since 7 March 2016.

Mikael Odenberg took over as Chairman of the University Board of Karolinska Institutet on 1 December 2016 and has two urgent matters to attend to: recruit a new vice-chancellor and clean up after the Macchiarini case. The minister responsible, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, says that the partly new board is expected to restore confidence in Karolinska Institutet and Swedish medical research.

Martin M. Corcoran, Ganesh E. Phad, Néstor Vázquez Bernat and Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam have published in Nature Communications in an paper that increases our understanding of genetic variation.

Vicente Pelechano Garcia at the Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology is one of two researchers to be awarded a Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. The grant is arranged jointly by five private research foundations and is awarded to young research group leaders who achieved a top grade and proceeded to the interview stage of their ERC Starting Grant application but did not make it all the way.

KI researcher Georg Klein passed away on 10 December 2016. He was professor emeritus of tumour biology at Karolinska Institutet, and a researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology (MTC). He was, among other things, a member of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet and in later years became known as an author and award-winning essayist.

Two MTC researchers have been appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows, an appointment that includes funding for between 5 to 9 million SEK per researcher for a five year period

The Riksbank (Swedish central bank) is introducing nickel-free coins and thus improving the health of many people with allergies. This is something for which Professor emerita Carola Lidén at the Institute of Environmental Medicine is chiefly responsible.

Seven young researchers connected to Karolinska Institutet have been appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows 2016. The purpose of this program, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, is to boost Sweden as a research nation by retaining the greatest research talents in the country and by recruiting young international researchers to Swedish universities.

Depression is the predominant mental disease and constitutes the most common cause of morbidity in developed countries. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to find a connection between development of depression and the existence of an enzyme in the brain of the fetus.

Professor Emeritus Folke Sjöqvist and newly appointed Professor Nagihan Bostanci followed different paths to Karolinska Institutet. One became a professor within a brand new research field and the other changed countries when she was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet.

Opinions have varied on how many professors Karolinska Institutet is to have. The first change took place in 1993, when over a hundred “kingdoms” were abolished.

Since 2011 universities and institutions of higher education in Sweden have had greater freedom to decide themselves on the appointment of a professor. Karolinska Institutet has chosen to expose professorships to competition and has abolished the right to be promoted.

The Erling-Persson Family Foundation has awarded a large grant to a KTH project where OnkPat's Rolf Lewensohn and Kristina Viktorsson have key roles.

Among women with high-risk early breast cancer, the use of tailored dose-dense chemotherapy compared with standard adjuvant chemotherapy did not result in a statistically significant improvement in breast cancer recurrence-free survival, and nonhematologic toxic effects were more frequent in the tailored dose-dense group, according to a study appearing in the November 8 issue of JAMA.

Henrik Wagner, at the group Growth and Metabolism, will defend his thesis "Factors potentially influencing pathogenetic mechanisms and hyperglycemia in pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes : clinical studies in human" on November 11, 2016. Main supervisor is Associate Professor Michael Alvarsson.

Previous experiments have raised concerns that general anaesthetics and surgery for infants increases the risk of learning difficulties and sub-standard school performance. New research presented in the international journal JAMA Pediatrics now suggests that these fears are unwarranted.

Global figures betray a worrying situation. At the same time, it appears the world has woken up. Our PopSci magazine, Medicinsk Vetenskap, has taken the temperature of the fight against antibiotic resistance.