News archive

In October 2025, the Faculty Board decided to allocate funding to NVS in a university-wide initiative to promote collaboration between environments with either a strong research profile or a strong education profile. Three of the department’s study programmes have been granted funding under this initiative.

Welcome to Andreas Rödlund's presentation of his thesis ”Understanding implementation mechanisms : a cluster-randomized controlled trial in schools”.

In the annual grant rounds from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, several researchers in the KI-NET4TB, the Network for tuberculosis research, received important funding.

Patients with diabetes have an increased risk of complications after stent implantation, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet published in Diabetes Care. The study, which includes over 160,000 patients, emphasises the importance of tailoring treatment strategies for this specific patient group.

We congratulate the seven researchers at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2026-2028. Together, the MBB researchers are awarded grants of 25,6 million SEK.

Adult Psychiatry Region Gävleborg has for some time been working on strengthening its efforts in suicide prevention training for staff. The region has now taken a new step in its suicide prevention work — all employees within Adult Psychiatry will complete the programme “Psyk-E bas suicid”, a professional education developed by Karolinska Institutet.

On October 21–22, Ulf Hedin, Professor of Experimental Vascular Surgery at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, visited Stanford University in San Francisco.

In a new study published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research, a research team at Karolinska Institutet has performed a large-scale genetic screen to uncover the hidden roles of tiny proteins, so-called microproteins. Cell stress and protein misfolding are involved in many diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, and the study could one day contribute to new therapeutic strategies.

The Torsten Söderberg Foundation recognises outstanding achievements in medicine through its annual grants. Two researchers from the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded grants in medicine to support their innovative research into brain health and infectious diseases.

As part of the Swedish Research Council's latest call, David Marlevi was awarded a Starting Grant within Natural and Engineering Sciences. The grant was the only starting grant in Natural and Engineering Sciences awarded at KI.

Between five and ten percent of the population has dyslexia. A new report from Karolinska Institutet summarizes the latest research and current state of knowledge.
“Our society places high demands on reading and writing skills,” says Martina Hedenius, PhD in Speech and Language Pathology and first author of the study. “Receiving the right support and response early on is an important factor for success for individuals with dyslexia.”

Researchers, clinicians, students, and patient representatives gathered at Karolinska Institutet for the 2025 KI Pain Network Conference, a full-day event dedicated to the latest advances in pain research and care.

Hello Bea Uusma, who received the August Prize in the non-fiction category for "Vitön", the continuation of the similarly August Prize-winning book "The Expedition: My Love Story" which was published in 2013. Both are about Bea Uusma's attempt to finally solve the mystery of how the members of the Andrée expedition died on Vitön in 1897. Bea Uusma is an affiliated researcher at the Unit for the History and Cultural Heritage of Medicine at Karolinska Institutet.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Columbia University and the University of San Francisco, have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism by which dopamine, a key brain chemical vital for movement and motivation, can affect brain activity indirectly, by boosting serotonin. The study was recently published in Sciences Advances.

Minister for Upper Secondary School, Higher Education and Research Lotta Edholm visited KI on 12 November. While being escorted around the Biomedicum research building, speaking with researchers in multiple sclerosis and finding out more about precision medicine, she asked questions concerning animal experimentation and KI raised the issue of Ahmadreza Djalali, the KI researcher still incarcerated in Iran.

On 23 October 2025, the Faculty Board decided to grant the Study Programme in Biomedical Laboratory Science at the Department of Laboratory Medicine four doctoral student fundings and four research grants as part of the initiative to strengthen the connection between education and research.

How successful are social services in preventing violence against children? Thanks to Livia van Leuven, there is now research-based support for Safer Kids (known in Swedish as Tryggare barn) – one of the programmes currently used by many Swedish municipalities.

Kristina Ehn from the Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM), at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) defends her thesis titled "New plasma and platelet products; evaluation of hemostatic and functional properties in experimental studies", on 28 November, 2025. Main supervisor is Agneta Wikman (MedH).

Forte's annual call for project grants will contribute to increased knowledge in Forte's areas of health, working life and welfare. Of the 74 approved projects in 2025, 19 are run by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, who will receive just over SEK 86.3 million.

Forte is investing in future research through annual starting grants for young researchers. In this year's decision, Karolinska Institutet is awarded approximately SEK 39 million for 11 projects characterised by high quality and societal benefit. This year's call for proposals is larger than previous years and has a clear focus on career development and international mobility.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified a brain circuit that can drive repetitive and compulsive behaviours in mice, even when natural rewards such as food or social contact are available. The study has been published in the journal Science Advances and may contribute to increased knowledge about obsessive-compulsive disorder and addiction.

Harald Lund has been awarded the Bjarne Ahlström Memorial Fund Prize for research in clinical neurology, with a particular focus on inflammatory mechanisms that affect the function of the central or peripheral nervous system.

Karolinska Institutet is making a long-term investment in research in medical education. A call for new research funding is part of the investment, which is being made in collaboration with the Gunnar Höglund and Anna-Stina Malmborg Foundation.

Forte has decided on two calls and awarded grants to eight researchers at KI. In the call for Research on person-centred and integrated care 2025, five KI researchers will receive a total of approximately SEK 33.5 million for studies linked to the transition in primary care. In the call for Research centre grants 2025, three KI initiatives are granted SEK 158 million for long-term research in dementia, psychiatry and return to work.

What is it like to study how older people live and receive care in different parts of the world? KI researcher Pernilla Alencar Siljehag is finding out first-hand during her research stay in Brazil, thanks to travel grants from Karolinska Institutet, SWEAH, and Svenska Sällskapet för Medicinsk Forskning.

The Aging Research Center (ARC) was established in the year 2000, at a time when geriatric research was still in its infancy and little was known about dementia-related diseases. This happened during a period when politicians and decision-makers began to take an interest in the growing ageing population and the challenges that were becoming apparent in healthcare and social care as a result.

Ulrika Lögdberg at the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (NASP) at Karolinska Institutet has been granted funding from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte) amounting to SEK 3,746,000, to be used for a three-year research project aimed at understanding suicidality among young people.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that stem cell therapy can reduce fractures by up to 78 per cent in children with the rare condition osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), also known as congenital brittle bone disease.

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) is investing SEK 120 million in the development of instruments, technology and methods that will enable scientific breakthroughs. Four researchers at Karolinska Institutet have received a total of almost SEK 35 million for projects that improve diagnostics, develop new therapies and provide researchers with advanced analytical tools.

Professor Anna Karlsson, prominent virus and cancer researcher and member of the Nobel Assembly, passed away peacefully on 16 November 2025 in Stockholm at the age of 67.

Starting January 1, 2026, the rents in KI Residence Flemingsberg and KI Residence Solna will be adjusted by 1–4 percent due to increased rental costs from the property owners.

Are you a student planning to go on exchange during the spring semester of 2026? We are now looking for students who want to blog about their exchange experience on the Study Abroad Blog.

Sara Mijwel Cardinale and Maria Hagströmer are the recipients of the grants.

Last Friday, KI celebrated one of the highpoints of the year as it awarded degrees to 19 jubilee doctors and 147 new doctoral graduates. The evening of 14 November in the Stockholm City Hall turned into a moving tribute to research advances from different perspectives – one such being gender equality: 50 years ago, barely 3 per cent of the new doctors were women; this evening it was 58 per cent.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method for studying the body's insulin-producing cells in mice. By placing small parts of the pancreas in an unexpected place in the body, the researchers can follow the work of the cells in detail. The study, which has been published in Nature Communications, may eventually contribute to better treatments for diabetes.

The Bergendorff scholarship was founded in 2022 in honor of Anders Bergendorff, the former program director of the master programme in Toxicology at IMM.

Welcome to Libe Vilela's presentation of her thesis ”Cleaning, disinfection, and hygiene practices : occupational exposures and health hazards”.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Neuroscience, explores how oligodendrocytes, the cells that produce myelin in the brain and spinal cord, respond during the development of multiple sclerosis. By following these cells in a mouse model, the researchers identified distinct disease-related states and gene activity patterns that may help explain how MS progresses at the molecular and cellular level.

Astradeni Efthymiadou from the Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit (GUT), at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) defends her thesis titled "Understanding corepressor complex function in the epigenetic regulation of macrophage gene expression", on 21 November, 2025. Main supervisor is Eckardt Treuter (MedH).

People today live longer than ever before. They also reach old age with more peers still alive and smaller families. Still, individuals over 80, who make up the fastest-growing age group in the population, are often not included in studies. This thesis examines how social life has changed over time in old age and how social connections are related to wellbeing.

Anna Thor, researcher at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC), has been awarded a research grant from the Swedish Association for Urological Oncology for her research on the treatment of patients with metastatic testicular cancer.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have discovered how mammalian cells prevent the gradual buildup of harmful mutations in mitochondrial DNA, the small but vital genome that powers every cell. The study, published in Science Advances, explains how mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) maintains its integrity despite its uniparental mode of inheritance and rapid mutation rate.

Karolinska Institutet has joined ten other European universities in signing a joint declaration on gender equality, signalling how critical the issue is to scientific quality and academic freedom.

In the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation's latest call, research grants of SEK 20.3 million were awarded to ten researchers at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. We congratulate:

Tuberculosis remains a global health issue affecting more than 10 million people every year. On October 20, leading international tuberculosis researchers gathered at the Nobel Forum to discuss how to reduce the remaining gaps in prevention, care, and research.

Professor Andrea Varrone at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded over USD 1.4 million from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The grant will be used to lead a study that can advance Parkinson’s research by evaluating a new tracer designed to reveal what happens in the brain as the disease develops.

On 3 November, the Government of Japan announced that Birgitta Henriques Normark, professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet, has been awarded the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star”. The award honors her contributions to promoting academic exchange and mutual understanding between Japan and Sweden. The Order of the Rising Sun was Japan's first award, established in 1875.

Depression in young adulthood has a stronger hereditary component and is associated with a higher risk of suicide attempts than depression that begins later in life, according to a new study published in Nature Genetics by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, among others.

The Center for Resuscitation Science was well represented at this year’s European Resuscitation Council (ERC) annual congress, held in Rotterdam, October 2025.

KI Master’s, PhD, and early-career researchers are invited to apply for the Winter School on Brain Architecture for NeuroAI and Neurotechnology: A Systems Neuroscience Perspective, taking place at the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche.