News archive

Some people carry antibodies that block the body's early defenses against viruses, increasing their risk of developing severe illnesses such as severe COVID-19. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now identified the immune cells that produce these antibodies. The findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

In the Swedish Research Council's latest call, 3 researchers were awarded from the Department of Laboratory Medicine. Congratulations!

KI researchers Joana Pereira and Professor Eva Kosek at the division of Neuro are each co-applicants on two different projects that have received funding from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW).

Arne Östman at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded SEK 6 million by the Erling-Persson Foundation. The funding will support a clinical study investigating whether an existing drug can help other cancer drugs reach liver metastases more effectively.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a method that makes it possible to track how different cell types in the gut form during fetal development in mice. The method provides new insights into how the tissues and nervous system of the gut develop and can also be used to investigate how genes influence these processes. The results are published in the journal PNAS.

We congratulate the researchers at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery who will share SEK 35,200,000 in grants from the Swedish Research Council in the Medicine and Health call and the Natural and Engineering Sciences call.

Forte has awarded nearly 5 million SEK to a research project at Karolinska Institutet and Södersjukhuset that will develop and evaluate Sweden’s colorectal cancer screening programme.

Carina’s treatment for rectal cancer was tougher than she could ever have imagined. Despite her illness, she continued working half-time as an mortuary technician. Work became a way to keep her fear of dying at bay.

When Benjamin Delfi was in the midst of making his dream of opening his own restaurant a reality, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer. Now that his treatment is over, there is room for those dreams again. 

There is a connection between the gut microbiome and colorectal cancer. The question is what it looks like, and how it can be used to tackle the disease. 

Colorectal cancer is becoming more common among younger people, particularly younger women. They are also more likely to be at a more advanced stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. Researchers want to identify more cases earlier and are seeing cause for optimism: in the form of a common painkiller.

Christine Delisle Nyström and Kristoffer Strålin from the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, have been awarded project grants from Forte, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare.

Medical digital twins are computerised versions of patients, enabling different treatments to be tested and the most effective one identified, without any risk to the patient’s health. And in the future, we will each have our own, according to researcher Mikael Benson.

What is it like to spend a semester studying in another country, and what opportunities are available to KI students who want to go on exchange? On 28 October, students from the Bachelor's Programme in Biomedicine and the Master's Programmes in Biomedicine and Toxicology came together for the International Day of the Biomedicine Programmes.

A doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet shows that people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) were at greater risk of severe COVID-19 than the general population. The findings also suggest that repeated vaccinations can strengthen immune responses and help protect against serious disease.

In the Swedish Research Council’s (VR) latest call in medicine and health, SEK 50 080 000 was awarded to 11 researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH). In addition, a MedH researcher has been awarded SEK 4 800 000 in funding in the field of natural sciences and engineering.

A European research project involving Karolinska Institutet will investigate whether artificial intelligence, AI, can help detect heart failure earlier in primary care. The project has also been selected by WHO Europe for presentation at an international conference in Ireland in 2027.

We congratulate the five researchers at NVS who are sharing SEK 25,800,000 in grants from the Swedish Research Council in the Medicine and Health call!

The kick-off for the new mentorship programme for students and alumni at KI was held on 7 October. A total of 20 pairs have been matched and will meet for conversations and to share experiences over the next seven months.

How is people’s health affected when heatwaves, air pollution and floods occur at the same time or in close succession? And how can society reduce health risks in a changing climate? Researchers at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, have been awarded a total of SEK 59 million by the Formas research council for two new research initiatives on climate and health.

Emeritus Professor Eva Nissen, a prominent researcher, passed away on 1 October in Stockholm, at the age of 76.

Laura Fratiglioni, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, KI, is ranked third in Sweden and 169th worldwide in Research.com’s 2026 Best Female Scientists rankings. Her research focuses on dementia, cognitive ageing and factors that influence brain health in older adults.

Two projects at KI SÖS have been awarded KI’s Pedagogical Project Funding for 2027. The projects are led by Kristian Ängeby and Anders Sondén and focus on new ways to develop students’ learning in emergency care.

Comparing oneself with others on social media is more strongly associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression among adolescents than using social media to pass the time. This is shown by a study of more than 4,000 Norwegian adolescents, conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The study is published in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.

Data routinely collected by health facilities could become an additional source for measuring maternal mortality, but their quality needs to improve. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Tanzania propose four measures for assessing these data. The work is published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 

People with severe mental illness experienced more rapid increases in both weight and long-term blood sugar levels during the first three months after starting treatment with antipsychotic medication. This is shown by a study from Karolinska Institutet and University College London, published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

The aICU research programme at Karolinska Institutet and Södersjukhuset has been named Innovation of the Year by Region Stockholm. The award was presented at Innovation Fund Day on 14 October and was received by Villiam Kildal, researcher at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset.

In her thesis, "mHealth support for physical activity after stroke or transient ischaemic attack - feasibility and intervention refinement", Hanna Lagerlund, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS, examines how support via a mobile app can help people who have had a stroke or TIA become more physically active and maintain healthy lifestyle habits over time.

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who are treated with rituximab have an increased risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease, particularly Crohn’s disease, although the absolute risk remains low. This is according to the first large population-based study in the field, led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in JAMA Neurology.

Colonoscopies performed by specially trained nurses as part of the Swedish bowel cancer screening programme are of at least the same quality as those performed by doctors, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Endoscopy. The results suggest that nurses could help to address the increasing demand for examinations within the national screening programme.

Discover internship opportunities, research placements and thesis projects across Europe through the NeurotechEU Internship Market.

Olivia Thomas, researcher in translational immunology in neuroinflammation, and assistant professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, has been awarded the Bjarne Ahlström Minnesfonds pris (Bjarne Ahlström Memorial Fund Prize) in “Clinical Neurology - especially inflammatory mechanisms affecting central or peripheral nervous system function”.

Medical AI can improve with new patient data, but every update must be checked first. In the journal npj Digital Medicine, researchers at Karolinska Institutet present AEGIS, a framework for governing and monitoring medical AI models on the market.

When Professor Jonas F. Ludvigsson presented research findings on children’s health during the COVID-19 pandemic, he faced fierce criticism from the general public, researchers and doctors alike. For his courage in defending scientific findings even when they have been controversial, he has now been awarded Research!Sweden's (Forska!Sverige) honorary award in recognition of his significant contributions to research, development and health.

We congratulate David Marlevi and the Translational Cardiovascular Imaging Team on being recruited as a Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) Fellow, and on receiving coupled long-term funding support from the DDLS program.

We congratulate Botilda Guthenberg, who has been named Occupational Therapy Student of the Year 2026 by the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists! She receives the award for, among other things, showing great commitment to both patients and the development of the profession.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified additional genetic factors underlying fat accumulation in the liver. In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics, 60 genetic regions linked to the amount of fat in the liver were identified, 31 of which had not previously been associated with fatty liver disease.

Many children and young people experience recurring stomach problems, even though their symptoms cannot be explained by any known disease or abnormality of the gastrointestinal tract. Researchers are now investigating hypnosis as a possible treatment option.

A new interdisciplinary research project three universities, Uppsala University, Karolinska Institutet and Umeå University, has been awarded funding by Formas. The project will investigate how indoor environments affect health risks associated with climate change and how adaptation measures can better protect vulnerable groups.

How can AI facilitate work at KI, and how is the technology used safely? This is the focus of KI's most significant effort in staff development to date. The first sessions within the programme AI-lyftet (the AI initiative) have aroused great interest and commitment.

Meet Joel Tärning, Labmed’s new Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, who uses clinical data and mathematical models to improve treatments for malaria and other infectious diseases.

The StratNeuro Starting Grant is intended to support outstanding neuroscience researchers at the beginning of their careers, who have received a Vetenskapsrådet (VR) starting grant or a Karolinska Institutet faculty-funded assistant professor grant. In 2026, StratNeuro has allocated a total of SEK 8 million to support this initiative.

The SSMF (Svenska sällskapet för medicinsk forskning) has awarded a postdoctoral grant of SEK 2.1 million to the project "Quantitative EEG as a biomarker of disease severity, disease progression and treatment response in monogenic epilepsies", lead by KI-researcher Una Smailovic.

People's need for healthcare, formal care and support from family members often begins to change years before a dementia diagnosis is made. In her doctoral thesis, “Understanding complex care utilization along the dementia journey: patterns, trajectories, and determinants”, Sakura Sakakibara explores how different forms of care develop throughout the dementia journey and which factors influence those patterns.

Aswathy Narayanan from Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), will defend her thesis entitled "Impact of gut microbiome and inflammation on clinical aspects of HIV infection" on 23 October. Her supervisor is Piotr Nowak.

On 7 October 2026, colleagues at the Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit (GUT) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, came together for an afternoon focused on research, knowledge exchange and new connections. Held at Neo, the event put GUT’s doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the spotlight by giving them an opportunity to present their research to colleagues from across the unit.

On 16 October, staff at KI SÖS gathered at Långholmen for this year’s Faculty Day. Through research presentations and joint discussions, the day focused on current research, collaboration with Södersjukhuset and the department’s future vision and strategy.

In a comprehensive study of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown that the enzyme ADK plays an important role in determining how leukaemia cells respond to triciribine. Published in npj Precision Oncology, the study also provides new insights into how the compound works and identifies ADK as a potential biomarker for predicting its effects on leukaemia cells.

In November, University Alliance Stockholm Trio is organising a webinar on research ethics with the title "The expert role of researchers - ethical aspects and good practice".

Lara Garcia Merino from the Integrative Cardiovascular, Cancer and Ageing Research Unit (ICCA) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), will defend her thesis entitled "Cell-type-specific dynamics of somatic mutation accumulation in age-related vascular and skeletal muscle dysfunction" on 23 October. Her supervisor is Maria Eriksson.