News archive

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a rare autoimmune disease. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine by the MITIGATE study team found that the drug inebilizumab reduced disease activity and was effective in preventing flares. The drug may therefore be a promising treatment option for the disease.

The Swedish Research Council has decided which applications have been awarded grants in clinical therapy research. In total, more than SEK 233 million will be granted for the years 2024-2027, of which SEK 98.5 million will be awarded to 13 researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Karolinska Institutet was honoured in October by a visit from Professor Brian Hodges, the 2016 KIPRIME recipient. The award, which is given in recognition of achievements in medical education research, has been of profound significance to him, and now he was in Sweden to open next year’s KIPRIME Fellows, an initiative devised to cultivate the next generation of prize-winners.

Emotional body odors may have the potential to enhance the anxiety reducing effects of mindfulness. This is shown by a pilot study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, co-authored by researchers from Karolinska Institutet.

New research from Karolinska Institutet shows that long-term sex hormone treatment in transgender individuals can lead to significant changes in body composition and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, particularly in transgender men. The study is published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

The Board of Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg's foundation has decided to award Bahira Shahim and David Marlevi the foundations personal prize and a research grant, for a total of SEK 650,000 each. The prize will be awarded at the annual Installation Ceremony at the Karolinska Institutet in October 2025.

Clarivate has unveiled its 2024 list of Highly Cited Researchers, recognizing individuals whose work has had significant global influence in their fields. Petter Brodin is one of them.

Welcome to Shizhen He's presentation of his thesis ”Biological mechanisms behind health effects of air pollution exposure from childhood to adulthood”.

The August Prize in the non-fiction category goes to Christian Rück, professor of psychiatry, for “Ett liv värt att leva. Varför självmord blev människans följeslagare” (A life worth living. Why suicide became man's companion). According to the jury, the book is written with ‘a liberating self-evidence’.

Following a reorganisation of the recycling bins in the Neo lunchroom, the amount of residual waste has been halved. This means that less waste is incinerated and more is recycled.

Hi Giulia Lorenzon, doctoral student at the division of clinical geriatrics. On December 18 yu will defend your thesis ”Brain heterogeneity within aging and cognitive impairment : implications for precision medicine and prevention”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

This year’s KI Christmas card is now available for download as a PDF. You can fill in a personal message and send it via email.

Clarivate has unveiled its 2024 list of Highly Cited Researchers, recognizing individuals whose work has had significant global influence in their fields.

Laura Covill from the Hematology Unit/HERM, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), is defending her thesis titled "Genetic and epigenetic diagnostics of viral susceptibility and inborn errors of immunity", on 29 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Yenan Bryceson (MedH).

Karolinska Institutet collaboration with Rockefeller University, which includes short-term staff and postdoc training exchanges, as well as the Nicholson Lecture. Calls are now open and Nicholson Lecture with Professor Luciano Marraffini will be held on Thursday.

Two roads on the Solna campus were renamed in September. Retzius väg is now Blombäcks väg after Margareta Blombäck and Birger Blombäck. Von Eulers väg is now Liljestrands väg, in honour of Göran Liljestrand. The change of name is part of the general review of the names of roads, halls and monuments that began at KI a few years ago.

Women who suffer severe complications during their first pregnancy or delivery are less inclined to have more babies, a study published in JAMA by researchers at Karolinska Institutet reports. Given the recent steady decline in birth rate in Sweden, the researchers propose monitoring in antenatal care to address the problem.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been granted SEK 5.6 million from the Swedish Research Council for a research project to improve person-centered care, patient safety, teamwork and communication in maternity care.

A new thesis from Karolinska Institutet shows the effectiveness of flexible parametric survival models in modelling multiple time-scales, providing a robust tool for complex time-to-event data analysis. The models were tested in the context of myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of chronic hematologic malignancies in which the bone marrow makes too many red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets.

The agreement with the occupational health service Avonova is now finalised and valid from October 1, 2024, to October, 1 2028, with the possibility of two extensions of two years each. For questions about the agreement, please contact Ia G Wallgren at the central HR Office.

We look forward to a long-term collaboration with Avonova, where the health promotion work is in focus.

Apply for a fun and paid extra job as a blogger for the Study Abroad Blog, where you share your journey and experiences on the blog and on Instagram.

More and more students are leaving school with incomplete grades or without qualifications for upper-secondary education. This trend needs to be broken, but how? One way could be through creativity, which was the topic of lectures and discussions at a recent conference in Aula Medica for researchers and decision-makers in the field of education and school development. Minister for Education Johan Pehrson spoke on the importance of teaching methods that reflect pedagogical research.

Karin Belander Strålin from the Hematology Unit/HERM, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), is defending her thesis titled "Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell fate decisions during fetal development", on 29 November , 2024. Main supervisor is Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen (MedH).

Congratulations to Anna Lundh, who has been awarded the Matts Halldin Prize 2024. The prize is presented by the Opuscula Medica association at Södersjukhuset, which aims to promote research, development, education, and innovation.

Makerere University in Uganda and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have been collaborating for nearly 25 years. On November 11th 2024 they celebrated their successful partnership during an alumni event at Makerere University's College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda. The event highlighted their achievements, including a joint doctoral program that has supported nearly 50 Makerere doctoral students, many earning double degrees, and the publication of over 500 peer-reviewed articles.

Karolinska Institutet awards grants from a large number of foundations and from donations. The foundations & donations award research and travel grants.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have developed a microscopy method that enables detailed three-dimensional (3D) RNA analysis at cellular resolution in whole intact mouse brains. The new method, called TRISCO, has the potential to transform our understanding of brain function, both in normal conditions and in disease, according to a study in Science.

Welcome to Lara Stucki's presentation of her thesis ”Multiple environmental factors and cardiovascular disease”.

Tips from Grants Office regarding current calls

Doctoral students and others showcased their achievments during the Advances in Health Care Sciences 2024 conference held at ANA23, campus Flemingsberg on November 14-15.

Tobias Alfven attended session on COP29 in Azerbaijan focusing health and climate action, to present a report on the effects of climate change on child health and well-being. The session emphasized the urgent need to recognize the climate crisis as a health crisis, particularly for children, who are disproportionately affected due to their unique vulnerabilities from pregnancy through adolescence

After severe heart failure, the ability of the heart to heal by forming new cells is very low. However, after receiving treatment with a supportive heart pump, the capacity of a damaged heart to repair itself with new muscle cells becomes significantly higher, even higher than in a healthy heart. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Circulation.

Tobias Kammann from the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) at the Departmet of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending his thesis titled "The diversity of MAIT cells across the human body and in COVID-19", on 29 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Johan Sandberg (MedH).

The Infrastructure Board at Karolinska Institutet (KI) has decided to fund nearly 30 of KI's core facilities with up to SEK 117 million for the period 2025-2028.

Hi Marko Bogdanovic, doctoral student at the Vascular Surgery research group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery.

You will defend your thesis "Strategies to predict patient-specific outcomes after endovascular aneurysm repair" on December 5, 2024 . What is the main focus of the thesis?

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found a molecule that can both help the intestines to heal after damage and suppress tumour growth in colorectal cancer. The discovery could lead to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cancer. The results are published in the journal Nature.

Business magnate and honorary doctor at Karolinska Institutet Fredrik Lundberg is donating SEK 25 million for a continued investment in cardiovascular research. This is the fifth large donation made since 2007 by Lundberg, whose engagement has enabled research that has greatly improved therapeutic and surgical methods for cardiovascular diseases.

Vice-president Martin Bergö, University Director Veronika Sundström and I want to meet you in our open dialogue meetings in December. These meetings are important sources of perspective, knowledge and insight concerning pressing issues facing KI, such as how we can work even better together as a university and equip ourselves for a constantly changing world.

The FyFa faculty gathered on 18 November for a workshop to start the journey towards “Establishing a FyFa faculty with a shared vision and framework for a sustainable and excellent teaching organisation that fosters collaboration, competence, and world-class education” – FyFa’s strategical goal for the teaching organisation.

In a new study published in the European Heart Journal, researchers at Karolinska Institutet show that genetic traits influence the cellular composition of atherosclerotic plaques, which over time will affect the risk of such lesions to cause a stroke or heart attack. The new knowledge can be used to improve the risk assessment and treatment of patients with atherosclerosis in the future.

People with a genetic predisposition to dementia can reduce their risk by up to 35 percent by increasing their fitness, according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. High levels of fitness are also linked to better cognitive ability, according to the study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet.

During the month of December, food waste management will be introduced in all of KI's buildings. When the food waste is sorted out from other waste, it can be recovered and used as, for example, biogas and biofertilizers. It reduces the burden on the environment and contributes to sustainable development. This has been mandatory for all households and businesses in Sweden since 1 January 2024.

Aortic aneurysm involves a risk of the large body artery rupturing, which is directly life-threatening. Hanna Björck, docent at Karolinska Institutet, has now been awarded Prince Daniel's grant for promising young researchers of SEK 6 million to develop future individual treatments.

Åsa Olsson, PhD student at NVS, is awarded the The Swedish Society of Nursing Doctoral Scholarship 2024. Her PhD project contributes significant knowledge about conversations regarding end-of-life care for the elderly.

After discussion in both the ANA Futura Drafting- and Steering Committee, the service team has purchased new porcelain for the coffee nodes in the extension/office building.

Common cardiovascular drugs are linked to a lower risk of dementia in older age, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

On 27 November, the Centre for Health Crises will host Sweden's first Health Crises Forum. The aim is to bring people together to discuss what universities can contribute with to support the surrounding society before, during and after a health crisis, and how they best collaborate with other actors.

Due to rising rental costs from our landlords, the rents will increase by 2% starting January 1, 2024.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated how well different AI models can predict the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer by analysing certain immune cells inside the tumour. The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, is an important step towards using AI in cancer care to improve patient health.

We congratulate the eleven researchers at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2025-2027. Together, the CMB researchers are awarded grants of over SEK 40 million.