News archive

Abdominal fat is not a uniform tissue. A new study from Karolinska Institutet, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, and Helmholtz Munich reveals that fat located close to the large intestine contains an unusually high number of inflammatory fat cells and immune cells. The findings suggest that this tissue is specially adapted to communicate with the immune system in the gut region. The study is published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Communications, reveals how rhythmic brain waves known as alpha oscillations help us distinguish between our own body and the external world. The findings offer new insights into how the brain integrates sensory signals to create a coherent sense of bodily self.

Cell and gene therapies use the body’s building blocks – cells and genetic material – to boost the immune system or correct the root cause of disease. It is a new era in healthcare, in some cases offering the possibility of a cure where previously only relief or slowing of disease was possible.

Karolinska Institutet has lost an outstanding and dedicated colleague. Professor emerita Anita Aperia has passed away after a period of illness. She was active at KI from her studies in the 1950s up to her last scientific paper, which was published in the spring of 2025.

The longer a person has type 2 diabetes, the greater the risk of cardiovascular disease. A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Diabetes, shows that changes in red blood cells may be an important explanation, and identifies a specific molecule as a possible biomarker.

If a person damages the brain or spine, nerve cells do not regenerate spontaneously. The mechanism has been there since the embryonic stage, but is not activated. Enric Llorens Bobadilla and his research group at Karolinska Institutet are trying to find which genes should be turned on to create new nerve cells. A new film about their work is now available.

Meet Johan Björkegren, Professor of Systems Medicine at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) since 9 December 2025.

Currently, a PhD position within the ACHILLES program is announced at Karolinska Institutet.

A new study from Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Uppsala University Hospital and Uppsala University shows suspected small vessel disease in young patients with Wilson’s disease. The study was recently published in Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that the nervous system's own immune cells help protect the spinal cord from age-related damage. The results, which may contribute to new knowledge about how certain neurological diseases arise, are published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

A small set of common blood biomarkers predicts which older adults will develop specific combinations of chronic diseases – and how quickly, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Medicine reports.

The protein p53, best known as the “guardian of the genome” for its role in preventing cancer, can affect blood vessels in different ways. However, it has not been clear how p53 can slow blood vessel growth in some cases and damage blood vessels in others.

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) has awarded 102 grants in medicine and health in five categories to 101 researchers at Karolinska Institutet. In total, KI will be allocated just over SEK 526,6 million for the period 2025-2031.

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) has decided on four calls and awarded funding to 39 researchers at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in the areas of clinical therapy research, international post docs within medicine and health, research into viruses and pandemics, and career grants within primary care.

Valentyna Yasinska at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, has been awarded a grant from the Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Fund.

The Cancer and Allergy Fund (Cancer- och allergifonden) is awarding a total of SEK 3,3 million to 19 research projects in the field of cancer and allergy. Of these, eleven researchers at Karolinska Institutet will be awarded SEK 2 million. Several of these projects focus on cancers with poor prognoses, such as pancreatic cancer, where more research and knowledge are needed.

From December 24 until and including December 28, and from December 31 until and including January 6, the KI Housing office will be closed. Tenants have received an email with the contact details for their specific accommodation area on December 19.

The Swedish Research Council is investing SEK 60 million in Sweden’s first graduate school for biomedical laboratory scientists, with Karolinska Institutet playing a central role. The initiative aims to strengthen the supply of expertise and meet healthcare’s need for research-trained biomedical laboratory scientists.

Girls who are vaccinated against HPV are not only well protected against cervical cancer; they are also less likely to develop severe precancerous lesions of the vulva and vagina, particularly if they were vaccinated before the age of 17. This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Oncology.

Hi Cecilia Johnsson, doctoral student at the Division of Occupational Therapy. On January 16 you will defend your thesis ”Complex paths of lifestyle change in stroke prevention : unveiling seeds and processes of engaging occupations”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

The Committee for Research at Karolinska Institutet has decided on recipients from the Jonas Söderquist scholarship foundation for basic research in virology and immunology. The awarded are Annika Niehrs and Thomas R. Müller at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, and Andrea Fossati at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology.

While in Sweden for psychological rehabilitation through the Repower project, Ukrainian combat medics visited Stockholm for a day of discussions and experience-sharing with Swedish healthcare professionals, decision-makers, and other actors within the Swedish total defence system.

The Promobilia Foundation is donating SEK 25 million to enable four research groups from Karolinska Institutet and Lund University to join forces in a major research project designed to develop new treatment strategies for the fundamental causes of Parkinson’s disease. The quartet will be using innovative methods, including advanced gene therapies and target-specific vectors, which are able not only to reach but also to protect the most vulnerable cells in Parkinson’s disease.

The Swedish Cancer and Allergy Foundation has allocated SEK 3.3 million to support 19 innovative projects in the fields of cancer and allergy research. Among the recipients are three researchers from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, who will receive grants to advance studies focused on some of the most challenging and hard-to-treat cancer types.

From the spring term 2026, new procedures will apply to all exams and tests held in examination halls at KI. You must be registered for the exam no later than 10 calendar days before the examination date in order to take part. Please read the rules carefully to ensure that your exam can be conducted without any problems.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (Barncancerfonden) has granted SEK 35,3 million to KI for childhood cancer research. This year, the Foundation distributed a total of SEK 145 million to relevant research projects.

Theresa Lemke is collecting data from a study in which schools have tried adapting to teenagers’ “internal body clock” – by starting morning lessons a little later.

At the same time as more and more young people are affected by mental illness, the need for research in psychology and psychiatry aimed at children, young people and young adults is becoming ever greater. Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation have now decided to award grants to ten research projects in the area. Seven of these are run by researchers at KI.

A 47-year-long Swedish study at Karolinska Institutet reveals how fitness, strength, and muscle endurance change during adulthood. The results show that physical ability starts to deteriorate as early as age 35, but it is never too late to start exercising.

The government has initiated an investment in new excellence clusters totalling SEK 2.5 billion. With five planning grants awarded by the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova, Karolinska Institutet (KI) is one of the institutions taking the next step towards strengthening Sweden’s position in medical research and innovation.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified small molecules capable of influencing a hard-to-target receptor family linked to cancer development. The findings have been published in Nature Communications and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Forced to flee as a child, today Elham Rostami saves lives in emergency situations – and conducts research to understand why some patients with brain injuries recover unexpectedly well. 

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and KTH have developed a computational method that can reveal how cells change and specialise in the body. The study, which has been published in the journal PNAS, can provide important knowledge about why this process sometimes goes wrong and leads to disease.

During 1–10 December 2025, doctoral students participated in the hybrid doctoral course “Sustainable Health and the 2030 Agenda." The course provided students and early-stage researchers with an in-depth orientation to sustainable health within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the interconnections between the Sustainable Development Goals and global public health. The course will be given again in December 2026.

The 2025 Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi discovered how the immune system keeps itself in check, paving the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes, MS and cancer. Before a packed Aula Medica, the trio described decades of challenges and successes that led to the world’s most coveted science prize.

During the past year, 33 lower secondary schools have assisted KI researchers in collecting soil samples from preschools across Sweden as part of the project Bakteriejakten. On 5 December, a final conference was held at the Nobel Prize Museum, featuring one of this year’s Nobel laureates, Fred Ramsdell.

When Oluwatobi (Tobi) Ayodele came to Sweden to start Karolinska Institutet's global Master's Programme in Health Economics, Policy and Management, he was prepared for challenges. But they were different from what he had thought from the beginning and they had unexpected results. Tobi Ayodele shares how what seemed limiting at first has actually changed his academic and professional goals and life outside the classroom for the better.

Congratulations to Åsa Carlsson Tedgren, who from 1 December 2025 joins the Department of Oncology-Pathology as adjunct professor.

KI researchers Carolina Hagberg and Jenny Mjösberg have been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant following a fiercely competitive application process. They will be using the money to further scientific knowledge about two major medical challenges: obesity-related cardiovascular disease and severe asthma.

High-resolution structures explain the mechanism of human PNPase and provide insights into mutations causing hereditary hearing loss and neurological disease.

How can we reduce the climate impact of consumption – from the food we eat to how we travel, live and shop? This question was at the heart of AIMday Sustainable Consumption, held on 3 December at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and organised by the University Alliance Stockholm Trio.

In October 2025, Karolinska Institutet launched a brand-new two-week course giving PhD students a unique insight into how advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), treatments based on cells, genes or tissues, are developed and manufactured.

Veijo Salo, new research group leader at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet has received SSMF (Svenska Sällskapet för Medicinsk Forskning) starting grant 2025.

Cecilia Ringborg, a postdoctoral researcher in the Surgical Care Science group, has been awarded the Cancer Association PALEMA’s project grant for young cancer researchers. She received SEK 25,000 and a diploma on September 26, when PALEMA, together with Karolinska Institutet and the National Register for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer (NREV), organised the full-day conference "Vägen framåt" (The path ahead).

Richard Rosenquist Brandell has been named Pharmaceutical Profile of the Year 2025 for his dedicated work in building a national infrastructure for precision medicine. The award is presented by Läkemedelsmarknaden in collaboration with Dagens Medicin and Dagens Industri.

Caroline Gahrton at the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), defends her thesis titled "Hepatitis C in people who inject drugs - prevalence, incidence, mortality, and treatment uptake", on 12 December 2025. Main supervisor is Soo Aleman (MedH).

Children who spend a significant amount of time on social media tend to experience a gradual decline in their ability to concentrate. This is according to a comprehensive study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Pediatrics Open Science, where researchers followed more than 8,000 children from around age 10 through age 14.

According to a new study, lower doses of approved immunotherapy for malignant melanoma can give better results against tumours, while reducing side effects. This is reported by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Communications, reveals an unexpected role for immature glial cells known as oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) in shaping the developing human brain.

A new international study published in The Lancet Oncology shows that artificial intelligence (AI) can be more accurate than experienced radiologists in detecting pancreatic cancer on computed tomography (CT) scans. The study is a collaboration between Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and the University of Bergen in Norway.