News archive

Thuy Tran's research group at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded SEK 8 million over three years from the Erling-Persson Foundation to develop a precision-orientated, theranostic, method that integrates the diagnosis and treatment of advanced, solid tumours.

On 23 October, the Stockholm Trio University Alliance hosted a seminar at Karolinska Institutet on how interdisciplinary research and education can contribute to sustainable development. The seminar was organized by Stockholm Trio for Sustainable Actions, an initiative within the alliance that supports Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University in their work to contribute to the UN's 17 global goals.

The Global Child Health and Sustainable Development Goals research group recently hosted a delegation of prominent guests from Shanghai, China, to exchange insights on health economics and childcare systems. Their visit aimed to deepen the understanding of the Swedish healthcare system, particularly in the context of children’s health.

Adrián Carballo Casla has recently been awarded a Forte Starting Grant 2024. His research project aims to tailor dietary recommendations to the unique needs of older adults, potentially leading to healthier and longer lives.

An abnormal BMI in children – be it high or low – can now be associated with impaired lung function, but if their BMI is normalised before they reach adulthood, the impairment can be offset, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report. Their results, which are based on data collected under the BAMSE project, are presented in The European Respiratory Journal.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that heart failure mortality has decreased in Sweden over the last 20 years. The study has been published in the European Journal of Heart Failure.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that global warming, combined with an aging population, could lead to a significant increase in people with severe electrolyte imbalances in the blood. The results are presented in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) arranged a seminar during October’s Nobel Calling week for upper-secondary school science students. Over 800 participants from around the Stockholm region gathered in Aula Medica to hear the latest news and issues concerning young adults’ environments, lifestyles and future career choices with an overall focus on human health.

Are you a student in any of KI's educational programs and want to participate in a focus group interview to share your views on how KI can build student engagement and develop the study environment?

Karolinska Institutet celebrates a remarkable achievement as two students have been honoured in the prestigious thesis competition Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA) programme. Muriel, a first-semester biomedicine master’s student, and Sophia, a final-semester medical programme student, have both emerged victorious in their respective categories thanks to their theses.

Donders Institute at Radboud University is part of NeurotechEU and collaborates with Karolinska Institutet. Recently, they held an event where KI researcher Gilberto Fisone presented his research.

How can a sustainable working life be created for people with depression and fatigue syndrome? Ridwandul Amin is one of five researchers who have now received a research grant from Afa Försäkring to develop more knowledge about this.

In a recently published study, researchers at the Institute for Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet show that there are pronounced sex differences in the incidence rates of psychiatric disorders over the lifespan, which varied depending on age, type of psychiatric disorders, calendar period, and socioeconomic status.

Recent advancements in high-throughput sequencing technologies have enabled researchers to harness valuable omics data, paving the way for precision medicine. This approach aims to enhance diagnosis and treatment by tailoring therapies to individual patients, moving away from traditional, subjective methods. However, analyzing omics data for effective treatment personalization remains challenging due to disease variability and data complexity.

Region Stockholm and Region Uppsala have teamed up to further strengthen their joint life-science cluster. At a conference on 10 October, large sections of the life-science sector in Uppsala-Stockholm met to discuss how its development is to be effected.

Hi there Abigail Dove! You have recently defended your thesis entitled "Cardiometabolic disease and dementia risk: identifying compensatory factors". Could you tell us a little more?

On a sunny Friday in October, KI was visited by Virginia Braun, professor of psychology at the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She was invited by Doctoral Programme in Health Care Science (PUF-V) and Dalarna University to give a lecture on what is important in qualitative thematic analysis.

Hi Marcus Skribek, doctoral student at the Department of Oncology-Pathology. On November 8 you will defend your thesis ”Strategies for optimizing immune checkpoint inhibition in advanced non-small cell lung cancer”.

A new study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications shows that the inflammatory protein IL-1β has an important physiological function in fat tissue. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that IL-1β helps the body manage energy storage by signalling cells to transform into new fat cells that can safely store energy.

On 4 November, Knut Steffensen will be taking up office as the director of the Karolinska ATMP Centre, a leading centre for advanced therapy medicinal products, with research, manufacture and treatment all under one roof.

Daniel Lundqvist, docent of clinical neuroscience at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, will be employed as professor of neuroimaging as of November 1, 2024.

Sweden has reached the UNAIDS and WHO targets for the HIV epidemic, according to a study in Eurosurveillance by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and others. According to the researchers, Sweden is the first country in the world to achieve these targets.

Karin Holmsten at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded Pfizer’s and the Swedish Society for Urological Oncology’s (SFUO) newly established research grant for oncologists in urology. The grant of 50,000 SEK was awarded on October 17th at SFUO’s annual meeting in Stockholm.

The application period for Karolinska Institutet’s programmes that start in January 2025 ended on 15 October. Several of these programmes saw an increase in overall applicants and first-choice applicants. Educational programmes for professionals, for which applications closed on 15 September, also showed greater demand compared to the previous year.

This interactive workshop was organized by Prof. Marie Löf, leader for the IMPACT research group and the Centre for Nutrition, together with our new Foreign Adjunct Professor, Ralph Maddison (Deakin University, Australia).

Hi Andreas Rydell doctoral student at the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. On November 7 you will defend your thesis "Impaired lung function and the development of cardiovascular disease". What is the main focus of the thesis?

The Department of Physiology & Pharmacology (FyFa) is celebrating 75 years at Campus Solna. This milestone is marked by, among other things, a special issue of Pharmacological Reviews, celebrating the long-standing collaboration between the department and the journal, both of which celebrating the 75th anniversary this year.

For three days, the classrooms in the Widerströmska building were particularly buzzing, when the research group Global Disaster Medicine conducted their course ‘Disaster Medicine - Health Care Response to Major Injuries, Health Crises and Disasters’ for specialist doctors. The research group has been running the course since 2018, but this was the first time it was held at Widerströmska.

Our body perception relies on how the brain interprets and integrates signals from various sensory systems, including vision, touch, and proprioception – our body’s ability to sense its position and movement in space. In a recent study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet demonstrated that nociception, the sensory process that detects potentially damaging stimuli to the body, also plays a role in shaping our body perception. The article was recently published in the scientific journal PAIN.

The Graduation survey 23/24 reveals that students at KI are satisfied with their education and feel well-prepared for their future professional life. The students' answers provide important perspectives and ideas for the development of education.

Professor Malin Flodström-Tullberg at Karolinska Institutet has been awarded this year’s Johnny Ludvigsson Prize for Outstanding Nordic Researcher. The prize recognizes her groundbreaking research on the mechanisms behind type 1 diabetes.

In a recent conversation, Abishek Arora, the founding Co-chair of the NeurotechEU Student Council and student representative at Karolinska Institutet, opened up about his transformative experience with the NeurotechEU initiative.

In September, the Department of Global Public Health and the research group Global Child Health and the Sustainable Development Goals, were visited by a delegation of eight medical doctors and researchers from Indonesia. The visit was the beginning of a four-year long collaboration on a PhD twinning arrangement and research on critical care, supported by Carl Bennet AB.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have mapped how small RNA molecules, such as the recently Nobel Prize-awarded microRNAs, control cell development in the human embryo during the first days after fertilisation. The findings, published in Nature Communications, may eventually contribute to improved fertility treatment.

New, effective, personalised cancer immunotherapy, better treatment for inflammatory bowel disease and improved protection against infections and viruses are some examples of basic research that is now being funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Of the total of 30 projects sharing SEK 835 million, seven are run by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Joar von Bahr holds a medical degree from Karolinska Institutet, where he graduated in January 2024. He recently had his ISP seminar at GPH, where he presented his research plans for the coming years. We got a few minutes of his time to dig deeper in to his PhD project.

Welcome to Shanzina Sompa's presentation of her thesis ”Electronic cigarettes and pulmonary effects : a translational approach”.

Every year, hundreds of doctoral and postdoctoral trainees, as well as researchers, travel across the Atlantic for conferences, lectures – and fika. These gatherings take place at two prestigious institutions: Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The collaboration between the two top-ranking institutions is now celebrating its 30th anniversary at KI. Some of the pioneering spirits who were on board from the start look back on what has made it a success.

ADHD can be a lifelong condition and have a significantly negative impact on life. However, maturity plays a role in this context. Approximately half of those diagnosed as children continue to have pronounced ADHD symptoms into adulthood.

Can fluctuating levels of female sex hormones worsen ADHD symptoms in women? That is what researchers at Karolinska Institutet want to investigate.

Over the past 15 years, the number of ADHD diagnoses has risen sharply in Sweden. Is this development reasonable? And what might be the cause? Whilst asking these questions, researchers would also like us to focus less on the diagnosis and more on the functional capacity of people with ADHD.

Centre stage at this year’s professorial installation ceremony at KI were stately academic tradition, prestigious medals and evocative entertainment – as well as intergenerational mingling between KI researchers and students at a much-appreciated hot dog truck outside Aula Medica on a chilly October evening.

The Swedish Society of Medicine (SLS) awards Professor Lars-Olof Wahlund, Karolinska Institutet, the Bengt Winblad Prize 2024. The prize honors outstanding contributions in Alzheimer’s research, and Lars-Olof Wahlund is seen as a pioneer in MRI imaging of the brain.

The National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (NASP) at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm is looking for middle and high schools in Stockholm County to participate in an interview study. The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of later school start times.

A new study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), with contribution from Karolinska Institutet, has revealed that one in three cases of oral cancer globally is linked to smokeless tobacco and areca nut use.

Every year in October, when the recipients of the Nobel Prizes are announced, the Nobel Prize Museum organizes events and meetings in collaboration with, among others, Karolinska Institutet. This year Professor Tobias Alfvén from the Department of Global Public Health teamed up with Secretary General of UNICEF Sweden Pernilla Baralt for a seminar about vaccination.

They work with highly specialised equipment for facilities that they have often built up themselves. Although not themselves researchers, their expertise, experience and international contacts render them indispensable for research at KI. A year ago, new titles were created for this important category of employee.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Science Translational Medicine, shows that people with type 2 diabetes have lower levels of the protein that breaks down and converts creatine in the muscles. This leads to impaired function of the mitochondria, the 'powerhouses' of the cell.

David Baker, USA, has succeeded in creating entirely new proteins – the building blocks of life that control all biological processes in the body. He shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 with Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind, UK, who have developed the AI tool AlphaFold2. “Now it can take minutes instead of years to get a good idea of what a protein looks like and how it may function,” says KI professor Luca Jovine, who intitiated a collaboration with DeepMind early on.

If you are reading this, you might be a student, an alumnus, or considering studying at Karolinska Institutet. Regardless, you probably have your own idea of what it is like to be a new student at KI, whether you have experienced it or not. Here, two students – one who is brand new and one who has studied a few semesters – answer questions about how it is, or was, to be new KI students.