News archive

Migrants from Africa and the Middle East and their children are more likely to be placed under compulsory care than the Swedish-born population when admitted to hospital for psychosis for the first time. That is according to a large, nationwide study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and University College London in the U.K., published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet discovered that the retinoblastoma associated protein RB and the mitochondrial ribosomal protein S18-2 (MRPS18-2) play the essential roles in homeostasis of cell stemness. Rb1-/- mouse primary cells expressing both, S18-2 and RB exhibited a stem cell phenotype. Downregulation of S18-2 and RB in human mesenchymal stem cells resulted in decreased expression of stem cell-related genes. Loss of the S18-2 protein resulted in embryonic lethality in zebrafish.

The risk of developing more than one skin melanoma over a ten-year period has seen a ten-fold increase in Sweden since the 1960s, a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports. The researchers suspect that the increase is due to a change in holiday customs with more active sunbathing and overseas trips to southern climes.

Cell surface receptors are essential for the communication of human cells. Simon Elsässer’s lab has developed a method to study these proteins on living cells. With very subtle alterations the method allows to label receptors with two different fluorescent probes in defined positions, as the authors show in Cell Reports. This can give detailed insights in how the conformation of a receptor changes as a result of for example drug binding, in the natural setting of the cell membrane.

Decades-long endurance training alters the activity of genes in human skeletal muscle that are important for metabolic health. This is according to a new study published in the journal Cell Reports by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of San Diego in the U.S. Sex differences found in untrained individuals were also dramatically reduced with long-term training. The results may have implications for metabolic disease prevention.

The StratNeuro board has reviewed the neuroscience submissions to the SLL call “högre kliniska forskare” (2019 and 2020) and decided to support the following researchers with SEK 500,000 each.

StratNeuro has awarded SEK 1,000,000 in start-up grant to each of the following KI recipients of a 2019 VR ‘starting grant’.

StratNeuro received 37 submissions from across 9 departments for the 2020 postdoctoral research grants. After evaluation from 10 external invited reviewers, we are happy to announce that StratNeuro will fund the 15 top ranked submissions (shown below in alphabetical order).

In a study in mice, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new potential therapeutic approach to facilitate neurological recovery in people with diabetes suffering from stroke. The treatment strategy is based on the chronic normalization of hyperglycemia after stroke. The scientists hope that these new results, presented in the scientific journal Diabetes, open the possibility to improve the current rehabilitative strategies against stroke in the diabetic population.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated the efficacy and safety of different approaches to ovarian stimulation of women with breast cancer in a multicenter study. Results of this large prospective multicenter study support the premise that current approaches to fertility preservation with ovarian stimulation in women with breast cancer are both safe and efficacious.

Patients with low income have a higher risk of death following surgery for lung cancer compared with patients with high income. The association remains even after taking prevalence of common comorbidities, and other factors that are known to influence the risk of death, into account. This is according to a study published in the journal Thorax by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

We can now conclude that the COVID-19 related morbidity among children during the two most intense months of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Stockholm was low, despite the strategy to keep preschools and primary schools open.

Professor Janne Johansson has been appointed Head of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, starting on September 1st, 2020 until August 31st, 2025.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new interaction between two proteins that reduce the risk of DNA damage and cellular cancer development. The findings on the proteins RTEL1 and Poldip3 are published in the journal Genes & Development.

Anders Jahre´s Award to younger researchers goes to Niklas Björkström, Center for Infectious Medicine, for his discoveries in how NK cells develop and function in physiological and pathological situations.

Karolinska Institutet has been awarded funding from the Swedish Insitute for two training programmes amounting to a total of four million SEK within the framework of the Swedish Institute’s Public Sector Innovation Programme. The programmes will run 2020-2021.

While most countries have national policies in place, effective coverage is very low and often exclude those who have the greatest need. There are often several prominent barriers, especially for those outside the formal workforce who are affected by illnesses such as COVID-19, according to a newly published article by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the SPARKS Network.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have found that the claustrum is organised into functional connectivity modules rather than a hub-like structure, which up until now, was the prevailing idea. The study was recently published in Current Biology.

Congratulations to Andrea Carmine Belin and Caroline Ran, researchers at the Department of Neuroscience, who have received The Swedish Brain Foundation's Research Grant in 2020, for their project on cluster headache, a neurovascular disease leading to extreme pain and for which there is currently no cure.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that excessive degradation of the power plants of our cells plays an important role in the onset of mitochondrial disease in children. These inherited metabolic disorders can have severe consequences such as brain dysfunction and neurological impairment. The study is published in EMBO Molecular Medicine.

A drug against rheumatoid arthritis called baricitinib could potentially be repurposed to treat patients with COVID-19, according to a study conducted by an international research team including researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, represent an example of how artificial intelligence (AI)-algorithms could help identify existing drugs as potential therapies against as new illnesses.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet uncover surprising features of mitochondrial protein synthesis. The study, published in Nature Communications, sheds light on the fundamental mechanisms used by the cell’s power plant.

Good health policies have the potential to positively impact people’s lives and reduce inequalities. Even though the aim is to base health policies on science, research evidence is only one of many factors impacting their development and implementation. Politics, culture, money and available health care staff often shape health policies and how they are put into practice.

The capacity of a stem cell population to generate several distinct cell types in a temporally defined manner is fundamental to both organ development and homeostasis. To achieve this, stem cells must carefully balance self-renewal and commitment to cellular differentiation, but how this is regulated at the genetic level has remained unclear.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet are part of a consortium granted almost 66 million euros (690 million Swedish kronor) by the european Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and other parties. The funds will be used to develop, test and facilitate access to chemical substances and other research tools that could pave the way for new drug targets and treatments of diseases within areas such as inflammation and cancer.

The School of Health Innovation is the first and only Nordic initiative to offer courses in innovation as an extension of the academic subjects health sciences and life sciences. The school was founded by Karolinska Institutet, KI, Oslo University, UiO, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU. The University of Copenhagen will be joining the initiative shortly and the Novo Nordisk Foundation announces its financial support with over SEK 10 million over the next three years.

Anders Jahre's Awards for Medical Research to Jiri Bartek and Anders Jahre Award for young researchers to Niklas Björkström. The prize is awarded by University of Oslo.

KI researcher Tobias Alfvén has been elected new chairman of the Swedish Society of Medicine and will take office on 1 July, 2020.

A new EU funded research project entitled “nexT gEneRation sMart INterconnectEd ioT (TERMINET)” has been initiated by researchers at KI and the Health Informatics Centre (HIC) at LIME. Karolinska Institutet is participating as healthcare research partner, within a consortium of 27 partners all around Europe.

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.

During a digital ceremony last Thursday, May 28, 19 international students in Sweden received the Global Swede award. One of them is KI Health Informatics student Winner Ng!

In a population-based cohort study from Sweden and Denmark of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) during 1969-2017 and matched reference individuals from the general population, Ola Olén, Jonas F Ludvigsson and colleagues found that IBD patients had an increased risk of small bowel cancer.

Researchers at the Medical Management Centre (MMC), Karolinska Institutet, have been granted funding for the research project "The quandary of low value care: health professionals’ decision-making on abandoning ineffective practices". We asked project leader Henna Hasson to tell us a little more about the project.

Alexander Fyrdahl from the group Clinical Physiology, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Applications of the golden angle in cardiovascular MRI" on June 5th, 2020. Main Supervisor is Andreas Sigfridsson.

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now report that they have identified a key target for the drug: specific serotonin receptors in the brain. Their findings, which are published in Translational Psychiatry, give hope of new, effective antidepressants.

The focus of Isabella Ekheden's thesis is on gastric and esophageal cancer – gastroesophageal cancers - that are some of the most fatal malignancies in the world. Understanding the cause of these diseases is key to interventions such as primary prevention and/or surveillance with the potential of lowering the disease burden.

NextGenNK sets out to deepen its interactions with health care units. Activities, when applicable, will be integrated with the Vinnova funded CAMP, that focuses specifically on GMP-bioprocess development, production and distribution logistics.

Hi there Anna Bergström! The research project "Building capacity for implementation within health and welfare organizations – a longitudinal evaluation of methodological support in implementation for working groups" is one of the 14 projects awarded funding from Forte. Can you tell us a little more about it?

A new study has been initiated to evaluate whole-genome and RNA-sequencing as a first line diagnostic approach for patients in Sweden with acute leukemia. The study is conducted jointly by the national R&D platform Genomic Medicine Sweden and the biotech company Illumina – and is coordinated from Karolinska Institutet.

Research from Karolinska Institutet published today in Nature shows that an RNA molecule involved in preventing tumour formation can change its structure and thereby control protein production in the cell. The finding can have important clinical implications as it opens for new strategies to treat different types of cancer.

Informing children of their parent's illness: A systematic review of intervention programs with child outcomes in all health care settings globally from inception to 2019

Anders Franco-Cereceda, Professor of Thoracic Surgery and Head of the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, has been elected member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.

Key factors for health systems to maintain health services when faced with challenges are collaboration, clear decision-making for health system workers as well as flexible response plans, according to a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet.

One in three women in Europe inherited the receptor for progesterone from Neandertals – a gene variant associated with increased fertility, fewer bleedings during early pregnancy and fewer miscarriages. This is according to a study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Hello Ingmar Ernberg, co-editor and professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor- and Cell Biology (MTC). Congratulations to your new book “Kvantfysiken och livet” that has just been released. What is it all about?

The fragmented Swedish healthcare system with its various levels of care, principals and care providers can lead to negative consequences in a person’s care and rehabilitation. This is especially relevant when several providers are involved in a care trajectory, such as in people with stroke.

Jakob Skov from the group Experimental and Clinical Neuroendocrinology, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Epidemiological studies on comorbidity, heritability and co-aggregation in organ-specific autoimmune diseases" on June 5, 2020. Main Supervisor is Sophie Bensing.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new sequencing method that makes it possible to map how DNA is spatially organised in the cell nucleus – revealing which genomic regions are at higher risk of mutation and DNA damage. The technique is described in an article published in the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.