News archive

The Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO) announce Christopher Cederroth as the recipient for The Geraldine Dietz Fox Young Investigator Award at the 2020 ARO Annual MidWinter Meeting. Christopher Cederroth got the prestigious award for his hearing and tinnitus research.

A new method of evaluating and prioritizing treatment for patients with suspected acute stroke, which has been used by the Stockholm health authority since 2017, has led to faster health interventions and better patient care, shows a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

Two weeks ago Karolinska Institutet launched two COVID-19 courses in Swedish for care providers, medical personnel and providers of social services and care of elderly as well as personnel working in connection to these services, following a request from the National Board of Health and Welfare. So far over 65 000 people have completed the courses. Now both courses are available in English. The first course is also available in Arabic, Persian and Russian.

The National Board of Health and Welfare annually distributes grants for research aimed at mental illness prevention and treatment of habits of living. This year, the research project “Tobaksavvänjning på recept” (Tobacco Cessation on Prescription) receives 2,3 MSEK.

A drug already tested against lung disease could potentially inhibit COVID-19 by reducing the coronavirus load that enters the lungs and other organs. That is according to a study in human cell cultures and organoids by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, published in the journal Cell.

Karolinska Institutet has now received the test material that will allow scientists to perform 5,000 analyses a day on patient samples. The lab will be ready next week thanks to the swift cooperation of KI researchers and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Qing Shen’s thesis aims to increase our understanding of cancer diagnostic workup, by investigating different stress-related health outcomes during the critical time period of cancer evaluation, diagnosis and treatment, and also provide evidence for a potential effective treatment approach to attenuate excessive risks of stress-related health outcomes.

Through a unique database, KI researchers have been able to study the risk of mortality among people with liver disease caused by too much alcohol. Principal investigator Hannes Hagström, associate professor at the Department of Medicine Huddinge and Solna and co-author Jonas F Ludvigsson, professor at Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics describe the study.

Some mammographic features - breast density, microcalcifications, and masses - are associated with increased breast cancer risk

In a small clinical trial just granted approval, about 30 COVID-19 patients at Karolinska University Hospital may soon begin to receive blood plasma from people who have recovered from the disease. Sweden’s Ethical Review Authority has approved the trial treatment, and its effectiveness will be evaluated in a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Karolinska University Hospital.

The ERC Advanced Grant is one of Europe’s most prestigious programmes for research financing. The grant has now been awarded to Ernest Arenas to tailor dopamine-producing brain cells for patients with Parkinson’s disease.

People continuously exposed to air pollution are at increased risk of dementia, especially if they also suffer from cardiovascular diseases, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal JAMA Neurology. Therefore, patients with cardiovascular diseases who live in polluted environments may require additional support from care providers to prevent dementia, according to the researchers.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and St Erik Eye Hospital in Sweden have discovered a way to refine the production of retinal cells from embryonic stem cells for treating blindness in the elderly. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, they have also managed to modify the cells so that they can hide from the immune system to prevent rejection. The studies are published in the scientific journals Nature Communications and Stem Cell Reports.

With rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and a healthcare sector under increasing strain, healthcare personnel can find themselves facing difficult situations and moral challenges. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University have recently published a paper in the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine precising what is known about moral distress, its risk and protection factors and likely implications. They also present suggestions about how the adverse effects can be mitigated.

Land allocation competition for housing at Hälsovägen

The National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (NASP) wants to raise awareness about the potential increase in suicide and self-harm behavior as a result of the societal impact of the corona pandemic (COVID-19). Risks are linked but not limited to the social, economic and health-related consequences of the pandemic which will continue in the future.

Avectas and Vycellix Announce Collaboration to Advance Next-Generation Solutions for the Optimized Manufacture of Cell & Gene Therapies. NextGenNK catalyzed interaction among its industrial partners to advance NK cell-based immunotherapies

Children infected with the new coronavirus generally have less severe symptoms than adults, they rarely need intensive care and very few child deaths have been reported. This according to a systematic review of COVID-19 in children, based on 45 relevant publications and performed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The review is published in the scientific journal Acta Paediatrica.

Through cooperation with a Chinese supplier, financial support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and coordination with the healthcare sector, Karolinska Institutet (KI) is taking concrete steps to strengthen healthcare capacity in virus diagnostics.

President of Stockholm City Council, Cecilia Brinck and the President of Karolinska Institutet Ole Petter Ottersen sign today, 23 March, a declaration of intent on a collaboration.

As part of the KI-K* Covid-19 resource group, and its actions towards need for organization of clinical sampling for diagnostics and research, a CIM Covid-19-task force has been established and is currently in full operation to support this action.

Two clinical researchers at KI have been appointed Wallenberg Clinical Scholars 2020. The individual funding of SEK 15 million from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation provides Anca Catrina and Mikael Rydén with the opportunity to deepen their research and disseminate their results in healthcare.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Basel in Switzerland have produced a mathematical model that shows that the spread of the new coronavirus can decline in the summer and then return in the autumn and winter. The analysis has been published in the scientific journal Swiss Medical Weekly.

Karolinska Institutet has launched COVID-19 courses for care providers and medical personnel following a request from the National Board of Health and Welfare. After one week of intense preparation, two online courses are now available.

Two new studies from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden underscore health risks associated with childhood obesity. Children with obesity have a three times higher risk of mortality in early adulthood compared with children in the general population and are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression. The findings, published in PLOS Medicine and BMC Medicine, highlight the need to identify specific risk factors for children with obesity and find preventative tools, say the researchers.

Camilla Olofsson from the group Growth and Metabolism will defend her thesis "Diet and postprandial risk markers for complications in type 2 diabetes" on March 20, 2020. Main Supervisor is Neda Rajamand Ekberg.

Congratulations to Professor Jesper Lagergren, from the research group Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery and Professor Pernilla Lagergren, from the research group Surgical Care Science, both at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, who will be awarded the 2020 Hilda and Alfred Eriksson's Prize.

We are born with all the hair follicles that we will ever have in our lives, because after birth the skin loses the ability to create new hair follicles. If our skin is severely damaged it cannot form new hair follicles or associated sebaceous glands essential for keeping the skin moist. But now researchers at the Karolinska Institutet have revealed that controlled activation of the so-called Hedgehog-signaling pathway leads to new formation of hair follicles and hair in mice.

Patients with polyps have a higher risk of colorectal cancer, and those with sessile serrated polyps, tubulovillous adenomas, and villous adenomas had a higher colorectal cancer mortality.

Their researches on the lamprey brain has enabled researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden to push the birth of the cortex back in time by some 300 million years to over 500 million years ago, providing new insights into brain evolution. The study is published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The president of Karolinska Institutet, Professor Ole Petter Ottersen, has established a team of experts for Covid-19 comprising eight of the university’s researchers with expertise in a range of fields related to the spread of infection. One of them is doctoral students Hedvig Glans, assistant consultant and head of inpatient care at Karolinska University Hospital’s infection clinic in Huddinge.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) causes, amongst other diseases, cancer of the cervix and oropharynx. A Swedish-Finnish study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases now shows that the most oncogenic HPV types can be eliminated, but only if both girls and boys are vaccinated. Both genders will be offered vaccination in Sweden as of 2020.

Among adults with chronic viral hepatitis at high risk of liver cancer, those who took low-dose aspirin long-term were less likely to develop liver cancer or to die from liver-related causes. The findings come from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and conducted by a team led by investigators at Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University Hospital in Sweden and Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S.

Hi there Sayem Ahmed, you recently defended your doctoral thesis "Healthcare financing challenges and opportunities to achieving universal health coverage in the low- and middle-income country context". Could you tell us what is it about?

Professor Ali Mirazimi at Karolinska Institutet is part of a consortium that has received 1 million Canadian dollars (almost 7 million kronor) to try to develop a drug candidate against COVID-19. Mirazimi will assist with in vitro and in vivo infection models for SARS-CoV-2. The project is a collaboration with Canadian and Chinese researchers.

Within the framework of a long-standing collaboration between Mayo Clinic and Karolinska Institutet, the Department of Global Public Health and Centre for Psychiatry Research will be hosting Mayo Clinic's renowned Tobacco Treatment Specialist Training Program in Stockholm during the fall this year.

The Hugh Knowles Prize for Distinguished Achievement is awarded periodically to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to research or clinical practice in the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of hearing disorders.

Karolinska Institutet’s Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters has been tasked by the National Board of Health and Welfare to arrange an education, training and practice package (e.g. on the handling of personal protective equipment) for medical personnel in connection with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet are on track to produce a vaccine against the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Several vaccine candidates are currently available in the freezers at the Department of Laboratory Medicine and the first animal studies are slated to begin at the end of March, according to Professor and Head of Department Matti Sällberg who is leading the effort together with virus researcher and Professor Ali Mirazimi and researcher Gustaf Ahlén.

Jiayao Lei’s thesis addresses research questions on prevention and prognosis of cervical cancer within the framework of the interplay of human papillomavirus (HPV), vaccination, and cervical screening, and also provides insights for evidence-based decision-making.

The 24-25th of March 2020 is the starting point of the new learning arena “Develop future development” aiming to increase organizational competence and capacity for multilevel development in complex organizational systems.

Three coronavirus projects coordinated by researchers at Karolinska Institutet have moved onto the grant negotiation phase in a bid for 9 million euros (95 million kronor) in EU funding. The projects aim to find a vaccine, immunotherapies and neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and are being coordinated by KI’s Matti Sällberg, Qiang Pan Hammarström and Benjamin Murrell.

Hi there Oliver Dyer, doctoral student at the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. On Thursday 12 March you will defend your thesis. Tell us, what is your thesis about?

An international team of scientists led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has launched a comprehensive overview of all proteins expressed in the brain, published in the journal Science. The open-access database offers medical researchers an unprecedented resource to deepen their understanding of neurobiology and develop new, more effective therapies and diagnostics targeting psychiatric and neurological diseases.

In an article published in The New York Times on 2 February 2020, Dr. Perry Klass discusses recent research and the relationship between the risk for depression and lack of physical activity among adolescents.

The EU-funded cooperation project "Modernity, Education and Human Rights" (MEHR), between Sweden, Croatia and Portugal, aimed at developing the work and strengthening higher education on human rights within the fields of medicine, social welfare, teacher training, geography and engineering.

Petter Brodin, researcher in immunology at Karolinska Institutet is awarded the prestigious Göran Gustafsson Prize in medicine for his “pioneering analysis of the early development of the human immune system”.

My goal is to continue the work of Erik Näslund and together with Danderyd Hospital continue to build and establish the best environment for the researchers, teachers, doctoral students and students of our department, says Tomas Jernberg

For some time now, various text messages have been circulated with an invitation to send an e-mail to an e-mail address that includes the words “karolinskainstituten” or “karolinska”. The invitation is justified by the claim that the sender can provide “important info for you about Coronavirus”. These text messages are fake and should not be answered! Karolinska Institutet is not the sender of these text messages.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet along with clinicians from the Karolinska University Hospital have discovered a new molecular mechanism of cell oncogenic signaling switch, which is induced by platinum chemotherapy and contributes to treatment resistance in ovarian cancer.