News archive

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.

Five researchers from Karolinska Institutet have been awarded grants from the Sjöberg Foundation, in total a sum of SEK 18.1 million. The foundation supports research with a focus on cancer, health and the environment.

Joanna Rorbach, researcher at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, is one of the eight recipients of this year’s KI Consolidator grant.

KI researchers Bennie Lemmens and Kirsty Spalding have been granted 2021 ASPIRE Awards from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research for their innovative and bold ideas on cancer research. They are two of a total of 25 award recipients who will jointly receive nearly $9.5 million (SEK 86 million).

Congratulations to Andreas Lennartsson, at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, who received 500 000 SEK in project grants from the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation 2021 for a project on "New therapeutic approaches for infant and child acute leukemia".

Eleven researchers at five departments at Karolinska Institutet have received funding from Cancer- och Allergifonden (Cancer and Allergy Fund) for their point-of-care research projects on cancer and allergies. The researchers from Karolinska were allocated SEK 2.6 million. In total, the Fund distributed a total of five million SEK to Swedish cancer and allergy research.

Congratulations to the researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge that are receiving grants from the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund 2022-2024.

The students in the 2021/2022 year of the Erasmus Mundus Master programme Public Health in Disasters are about to complete their time in Sweden and move on. We spoke to Rickkye Gan and Collins Santhanasamy about what made them interested in the programme, what they have learnt and what they will take with them from their time in Sweden.

For the second year in a row the Swedish Society of Medicine (Svenska Läkarsällskapet) together with its associations and main partner Karolinska Institutet arranged the State of the Art Covid-19 conference. One of the keynote lectures discussed the future global pandemic preparedness and suggestions from two international independent expert panels presented by Sweden's and Norway's Ambassadors for Global Health.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have charted the number of healthcare workers in Stockholm who were on duty during the first wave of the pandemic despite being infected with SARS-CoV-2, having been asymptomatic at the time. The results of the study, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE, present very low figures but the researchers believe that this could still have affected the spread of infection.

Last week the Department of Global Public Health in cooperation with War Child Sweden and the Swedish Red Cross University College hosted a guest lecture with Professor Mark Jordans. In his presentation, Professor Jordans presented interventions and evidence on how to promote the mental health and well-being of children in settings made fragile by armed conflicts.

A receptor activated by substances formed from omega-3 fatty acids plays a vital role in preventing inflammation in blood vessels and reducing atherosclerosis, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation reports. The discovery can pave the way for new strategies for treating and preventing cardiovascular disease using omega-3 fatty acids.

Use of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) does not lead to poorer mental health in children across adolescence and young adulthood, according to a large observational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found a slightly higher risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder for those born after ART but this was explained by parental background factors.

Kelly Elimian is a postdoctoral researcher at Karolinska Institutet in the research team Global Child Health and Sustainable Development Goals, Department of Global Public Health. His research focuses on strengthening cholera interventions in the north-eastern part of Nigeria and making sure available interventions are properly implemented across cholera endemic countries, of which Nigeria is one.

Karin Wallander at the research group Clinical Genetics, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend her thesis "Hereditary predisposition and prognostic prediction in cancer" on December 17, 2021. Main Supervisor is Emma Tham.

Critical illness and intensive care can affect patients and their families long after discharge from hospital. In her doctoral thesis at Karolinska Institutet, intensive care nurse Gisela Vogel has studied different strategies used to manage critical illness and care in an intensive care unit, from when the patient becomes critically ill until the return to everyday life.

Media coverage of positive vaccine research can have a positive effect on overall social media sentiment – countering vaccine misinformation – but the effects wane over time. Researchers at Oxford University and Karolinska Institutet have analysed social media to investigate associations between vaccine-related major news announcements, and attitudes towards vaccines.

Hi, Riccardo Lo Martire, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS. On January 14 you will defend your thesis ”Sickness absence among patients with chronic pain in Swedish specialist healthcare”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

Riccardo Cristiani at the research group Sports Medicine, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction : subjective knee function, graft failure and revision surgery" on December 17, 2021. Main Supervisor is Anders Stålman.

Instead of searching for proteins that the immune system reacts against in a specific autoimmune disease, researchers have taken the opposite approach to find diseases linked to a certain protein. By searching among patients with various skin diseases, they identified a disease linked to autoimmunity against the skin protein TGM1. The strategy, which is presented in the journal PNAS, can facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Anna Kågesten and Karin Båge, Assistant Professor and PhD-student respectively, at the Department of Global Public Health, have co-authored a newly published report for the Expert Group on Aid Studies. The report aims to improve the understanding of norms and values that undermine vs. support sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and to identify gaps and possibilities for Swedish development cooperation to find ways to relate to these norms and values.

Are you an undergraduate student at KI? Are you interested in research? Have you thought about doing a PhD? Then the KI Summer School in Medical Research (KISS) may be of interest to you!

Karin Liljelund was diagnosed with lung cancer. She is now being treated with targeted drugs against the very mutation that causes her cancer, an example of precision medicine.

Can artificial intelligence (AI) overcome the challenges of precision medicine? We asked Magnus Boman, professor at KTH and affiliated to KI, whose research includes looking at how AI can be used in healthcare.

Helena Bergsten, Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) at the Department of Medicine Huddinge, is defending her thesis "Streptococcal and Staphylococcal Tissue Infections: Therapeutic Challenges and Opportunities" on December 17th 2021. Main Supervisor is Professor Anna Norrby-Teglund.

During seven weeks in the summer, undergraduate students at Karolinska Institutet can enrol in Karolinska Institutet’s Summer School in Medical Research which is a research-preparatory school. Previous participant Victor Tollemar and supervisor Rachael Sugars both agree that it is an excellent opportunity to receive insight and get to experience a researcher’s world for a short period.

KI's education is in constant development. The international program offering is now expanding, and two additional master’s programmes have been added to the catalogue. It is The Master's Programme in Translational Physiology and Pharmacology and The Master's Program in Nutrition Science that will start during the autumn of 2022.

A large study by an international team of researchers including from Karolinska Institutet has demonstrated that the frequency of defecation is a heritable trait in humans, and that specific genetic profiles influence bowel habits and predisposition to irritable bowel syndrome. The findings are published in the journal Cell Genomics.

79 KI researchers have received a total of SEK 254,450,000 in grants from the Swedish Cancer Society. In addition, four Fellowship prevention grants were also awarded to researchers at KI. In total, the Swedish Cancer Society distributed SEK 850 million, which is the largest amount ever.

This year's silver medals are awarded to professors Maria Masucci, Christina Opava, Åke Rökaeus and Jan Ygge. The medal is awarded to people who have made particularly excellent efforts to support Karolinska Institutet's operations and is celebrated in connection with the ceremony "Nit och Redlighet".

We are approaching Holidays ans the closing of the books and would like to remind you of some important information regarding finances and HR.

Never before have so many people been displaced by war and poverty. Such change and loss can leave deep psychological scars. A new thesis by Doctor Maria Sundvall at Karolinska Institutet is based on surveys and interviews with asylum seekers and refugees in Sweden about their encounters with the psychiatric and primary care services. The results of her studies can make a significant contribution to the dialogue between migrants, clinics and authorities.

What is precision psychiatry? KI researcher Kristiina Tammimies gives an example. She is a research leader at the KIND competence centre, the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, and studies the role of genetics in neuropsychiatric disorders.