News archive

Roughly three times as many male athletes are banned for doping as female. A new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet shows that one possible reason for this is that the doping tests in use fail to take account of women’s varying hormone profile. Instead, an alternative is proposed that includes a blood test and a limit value that allows doping tests for both elite athletes and casual sportspersons.

As summer approaches, it’s essential to plan ahead. Here are some key considerations from the finance and HR departments.
During summer, administrative staff at LIME and KI may be on vacation, affecting their presence. Expect longer response times in email inboxes, and note that there will be auto-replies directing urgent matters.

In this spring's call for grants for international postdocs in medicine and health, the Swedish Research Council approved 9 out of 42 applications. Of these nine, four, Daniel Helldén, Klara Lenart, Yunbing Shen and Miranda Stiernborg, are researchers at KI. In total, almost SEK 36 million was granted for the period 2024–2027.

Miranda Stiernborg, researcher in molecular biology at the Translational Psychiatry group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, receives an international postdoc grant of SEK 3.9 million from the Swedish Research Council to study recurrent urinary tract infections in women.

After being LIME's Acting Head of Department for 4 months Sabine Koch has been appointed as ordinary Head of Department as of 1st July 2024.

We are approaching summer and the half-year closing of the books and would like to take the opportunity to remind you of some important information from Finance and HR.

University of Bonn awards scholarships to NeurotechEU-students for an on-site Intensive German language course in September 2024

When Inger Kull was a new nurse in the early 1980s, researchers were looking for risk factors. Today she is a professor and prefers to talk about health factors. Thirty years of research on the Bamse-children have provided answers to many questions, but not the most difficult: Why do children develop allergies?

On May 25, the Swedish Institute (SI) hosted a diploma ceremony at Stockholm's City Hall, celebrating its scholarship recipients. Among the scholars were seven students from Karolinska Institutet (KI) on site.

The IT Office is further broadening the software portfolio with three popular software products that have a large number of users at KI.

Robin Zenlander from the Gastroenterology and Rheumatology Unit at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, is defending his thesis titled "Biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma", on 13 June, 2024. Main supervisor is Per Stål (MedH).

New research reveals that scar formation after spinal cord injuries is more complex than previously thought. Scientists have identified two types of perivascular cells as key contributors to scar tissue, which hinders nerve regeneration and functional recovery. These findings, published in Natural Neuroscience, are also relevant for other brain and spinal cord injuries and could lead to targeted therapies for reducing scarring and improving outcomes.

The SciLifeLab board has appointed Professor Jan Ellenberg as the new director. Alongside this role, Professor Ellenberg will also be appointed as a professor at Karolinska Institutet and affiliated professor at Stockholm University and KTH (Royal Institute of Technology). He succeeds Professor Olli Kallioniemi, who has served as SciLifeLab director since 2015.

KI's Education Congress is aimed at those who are involved in teaching at KI or interested in educational issues. The venue is campus Solna and this year we focus on the theme ‘Exploring the Human Dimensions of Education’. Register now!

That was the title of the KI-Lifestyle4Health open seminar on June 3rd, 2024. The answer, as perhaps expected, was yes, but participants also got the opportunity to listen and discuss research-based examples and practical trials.

Last week of May four researchers from Ukraine came to Karolinska Institutet for a week of research exchange and collaboration. They are part of the Doc-Stud-Ukraine project funded by the Swedish Institute, focused on supporting Ukrainian PhD students and young researchers to contribute effectively to health systems strengthening, particularly for children and adolescents in deoccupied territories in Ukraine.

Hi there Jonatan Gustavsson! You have recently defended your thesis entitled "Determinants of age-related brain iron accumulation and links to neurocognitive functions". Could you tell us a little more?

This spring, the Vinnova-founded Competence Center, NextGenNK underwent a comprehensive five-year evaluation. The evaluation report, presented on 30 May, praised the center and recommended five more years of funding for NextGenNK.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with Sophiahemmet University and LongLife Active AB, have developed an AI-assisted mobile health app with the potential to promote lifestyle behaviours.

KI has presented this year’s sustainability award to Assistant Senior Lecturer Emma Swärdh for her dedication and leadership in the field of sustainable development. Created in 2023, the award was presented at KI’s Sustainability Day on 22 May for the second time. “I hope that it will inspire more people to get involved in sustainability issues,” she says.

Today, 5 June, we celebrate World Environment Day. Fittingly, the 2024 report from the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) was completed a couple of weeks earlier. Since its publication in May, the KI students who led the work can proudly present improved grades for the medical programme and one new programme in the report: the physiotherapy programme.

Karolinska Institutet has been invited by STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education) to nominate two candidates and a backup candidate to participate in the exchange programme for teaching staff called Teaching Sabbatical.

Last Thursday and Friday brought more excitement than ordinary weekdays and we have the graduating students to thank for it. It was time for the graduation ceremonies for all KI’s study programmes.

This is a summary of the digital information meeting that prof Maria Eriksdotter, head of the project steering group, together with the departmental heads of BioNut and MedH on 28 May addressing all staff at BioNut and MedH.

On June 3rd, the Theranostics Trial Center (TTC) was inaugurated as a new section within the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Hospital Physics, Medical Diagnostics Karolinska (MDK) with an academic base within the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet.

While mentally stimulating activities and life experiences can improve cognition in memory clinic patients, stress undermines this beneficial relationship. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Innsbruck have developed a simpler and more effective screening method for cervical cancer than the method used today. A comprehensive study published in Nature Medicine shows that the test detects significantly more cancers and precancerous stages.

Anna Kågesten, Elin Larsson, and Anna Mia Ekström recently attended the official launch of the ENGAGE project during its inception meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This 4-year project aims to co-design a differentiated care package for vulnerable groups of adolescent girls and young women with HIV, addressing their poorer outcomes and higher rates of vertical HIV transmission.

Some 40,000 Swedes live with severe asthma, a disease that causes considerable suffering. Thanks to grants from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, KI researcher Jenny Mjösberg has discovered a specific cell that is thought to play a major part in non-allergic asthma. Further examination of these cells can help to optimise the use of drugs and reduce suffering for people with severe asthma. She has now been awarded the Heart-Lung Foundation’s grand research grant to continue her research.

ARC junior researchers, which includes research assistants, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, spent the day at Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden for a writing retreat on Friday 31 May 2024.

Welcome to Ida Karlsson's defense of the thesis ”A problem-solving intervention for employees on sickness absence due to common mental disorders: effects, ethics and process” on June 14.

A study conducted by researcher Juan Du's research group at the Karolinska Institutet sheds light on the capabilities of our gut microbes and their metabolites. The findings reveal potent inhibitory effects on the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and suggest interactions and signaling between gut microbes and pathogens.

On June 6-7, the KI Housing office will be closed due to the Swedish National Day holiday (on June 6).

Researchers from the Clinical Genetics Group at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, have set up a collaboration with the Centre for Research and Technology in Greece to make publicly available resources in biology and cancer more accessible to the research community. The teams are developing a first-of-its-kind cancer knowledge graph, as part of the SciLake Project involving partners across Europe.

Together with researchers from University of Oxford, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have demonstrated that a subclass of stem cells that are dedicated to the production of platelets replenish platelets through a distinct and shorter pathway than other stem cells. This is presented in a study published in the journal Nature Immunology.

Karolinska Institutet disposes of funds from a large number of foundations and from donations. From these, research and travel grants are awarded.

David Marlevi, Associate Senior Lecturer in Medical Science at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, is one of nine young prominent researchers elected to the Young Academy of Sweden.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland and Lund University a new publication in Genome Biology, demonstrated that targeting cell cycle and cell fate regulatory programs blocks non-genetic cancer evolution in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

How can we help decision-makers during health crises, by developing rapid and useful decision bases, built on research and proven experience? With this question in mind, the Centre for Health Crises gathered a group of curious participants in Aula Medica on Thursday 29 May for a full-day workshop on creating rapid response briefs for decision-making in health crises.

Doctoral student Cara Swain at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics is a rising Star! As one of five winners in the Defence category 2024 Rising Star Awards she gets praised!

This year marks 50 years since the dentistry programme moved from Holländargatan to Huddinge. The move to Huddinge meant a closer location to other medical education and research facilities, especially at Karolinska Institutet.

Congratulations Emma Swärdh! NVS is today a proud department as one of our environmental and sustainability representatives has received the KI's Sustainability Award 2024

Tips from KI Grants Office about current calls.

Anna Nilsson has been appointed Professor at KBH and will take up the position on July 1, 2024. Her journey began by chance when she ended up in pediatric oncology during her early years as a pediatric resident. She enjoyed working in the department, which was then called '8an', and over time her interest in research was awakened.

Michael Wells has been appointed research group leader at the Division of Neonatology, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health as of 1 June. His main research interests lie in intervention and implementation research with a focus on social and family policy outcomes. His work revolves around Swedish reproduction and child health, especially the support given to parents, with a focus on fathers of infants.

In a recent ceremony held at Karolinska University Hospital, Professor Angelica Lindén Hirschberg, a distinguished gynecologist and researcher, was awarded the prestigious prize for exemplary research contributions to patient welfare.

Jonas Bergh, Klas Kärre, Lars Rydén and Karin Schenck-Gustafsson are awarded the Grand Silver Medal 2024. The medal has been presented since 2010 to individuals who have made tremendous efforts to support the activities of KI and is recognized during the installation ceremony at Aula Medica on October 3.

The Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI) has launched a new network for the safe handling of nanomaterials. The network is based on the national platform for safe handling of nanomaterials which was hosted by IMM.

Riitta Möller is awarded the prize for her great commitment to students and pedagogical development.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method for detecting malignant melanoma. A new type of patch equipped with microneedles can identify the biomarker tyrosinase directly in the skin, according to a study published in Advanced Materials.