News archive

Hi Anja Gebhardt, PhD student at the Division of Nursing. On December 15 you will defend your thesis ”Beyond exhaustion and pain: the intertwinement of health and suffering among women and mothers”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital have developed a new kind of immunotherapy for leukemia. The results of a study published in Nature Biotechnology show that the therapy kills cancer cells from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The researchers now want to conduct a clinical study and also test the method on other types of cancer.

By building up expertise around how pain arises, he hopes to help find a future solution to chronic pain. Professor Patrik Ernfors writes about failures, his work with the Nobel Prizes and why you need to be open-minded to make new discoveries.

Endothelial cell dysfunction is a well-established response to cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking and obesity. A new study from Karolinska Institutet show that an individual’s cardiovascular disease risk was linked to the levels of endothelial proteins found in the blood. The study was recently published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, ATVB Journal.

While investigating the unusual G quadruplex DNA structure (G4), the Simon Elsässer group has developed a more accurate method for mapping these structures in the genome. G4 CUT&Tag revealed numerous G4s in the human and mouse genome that were previously not detected. The study has been published in Nucleic Acid Research. These findings may be used for drug development for cancer therapy and provide an important tool to evaluate drug action and safety.

Kidney function plays an important role in drug safety and effectiveness. As many medications are excreted by the kidneys, patients with reduced kidney function are at a higher risk of toxic drug levels. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been recognized as a leading public health problem worldwide with a global estimated prevalence over 9%.

Having an elevated resting heart rate in old age may be an independent risk factor of dementia, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Since resting heart rate is easy to measure and can be lowered through exercise or medical treatment, the researchers believe that it may help to identify people with higher dementia risk for early intervention.

At the french ambassy, in attendance of colleagues, family and friends senior advisor Marie Chenik was bestowed upon the insignia of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit.

Analysing molecular characteristics and their variation during lifestyle changes, by combining digital tools, classical laboratory tests and new biomolecular measurements, could enable individualised prevention of disease. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland published in the journal Cell Systems. The researchers show what a proactive healthcare model could comprise and how it could help in maintaining good health.

Four of the 27 new Wallenberg Academy Fellows appointed in 2021 will conduct their research at Karolinska Institutet (KI). The five-year grant is financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) Foundation to provide young and talented PIs with long-term research funding in Sweden. This year, two researchers at KI are also awarded an extended grant within the funding programme.

The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is strongly associated with the “bad” LDL cholesterol. A large study by scientists at Karolinska Institutet now shows that two proteins that transport cholesterol particles in the blood provide early and reliable risk information. The researchers advocate introducing new guidelines for detecting cardiac risk and say the results, published in PLOS Medicine, may pave the way for early treatment, which could help lower morbidity and fatality rates.

Congratulations to all the researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut) who received funding from Cancerfonden 2022-2024. We would also like to highlight their special initiative: Fellowship in cancer research in primary prevention, which was awarded to one of our researchers.

Richelle Duque Björvang, doctoral student at the division for obstetrics and gynecology, has won the European competition "HERStory" which aims to inspire the next generation of young researchers to think big and dare to try different career paths

Amit Kumar and Agneta Nordberg, at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics (Nordberg Translational Molecular Imaging Lab), are awarded a grant of USD 175,000 USD over a four-year period for the project ”Understanding the role of synaptic loss in degenerative proteinopathies”.

Weakening muscles are a natural part of the ageing process, but for some people with a condition called sarcopenia the decline is abnormally fast. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that the early stages of sarcopenia could be counteracted with timely interventions designed to preserve physical and cognitive function and manage chronic conditions. The results are published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

In a recent study published in the scientific journal EMBO Reports, the Nils-Göran Larsson group has identified responses to acute and chronic impairment of mitochondrial gene expression. These findings can be valuable for future mitochondria-targeted therapy for cancer and other mitochondrial-related disorders. We have talked to postdoctoral researcher and the study’s first author Mara Mennuni about their findings.

KI researcher Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga, Assistant Professor at the Aging Research Center (ARC), has been awarded a project grant for research within primary care from the Swedish Research Council.

Professor Carol Tishelman at the Department of learning, informatics, management and ethics and her research group have been awarded the KI Culture Award 2021 for the research project DöBra.

Last month was the half time seminar of Hang Tran Thi Thanh with the title: Clinical and experimental implementation of standardised hypothermic treatment for neonatal asphyxia in low-income settings.

Naseer Baloch at the research group Colorectal Surgery, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Perineal healing following abdominoperineal excision for rectal and anal cancer" on December 3, 2021. Main Supervisor is Per Nilsson.

On November 24, H.M. Queen Letizia of Spain, H.M. Queen Silvia and H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

On 18 November 2021, the Faculty Board at Karolinska Institutet decided on the allocation of the funding for eight positions as Assistant Professor, eight positions as Senior researcher and eight Consolidator grants for researchers already employed by KI.

Hi Elisabeth Carlsson Farrelly, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On December 16 you will defend your thesis ”The Stockholm Spinal Cord Uro Study”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

On 18 November 2021, the Faculty Board decided on the allocation of the funding for eight positions as Assistant Professor, eight positions as Senior researcher and eight Consolidator grants for researchers already employed by KI.

Understanding how the complex geometry of branching tissues take shape during embryonic development or the growth of any organisms has long been a fascinating subject. Neuroscientists at Karolinska Institutet, together with theoretical physicists from IST-Austria, have now combined live imaging in a zebrafish model system with analytical theory to uncover a generic design principle to predict 3D axon branching morphogenesis.

Bacteria from the digestive system seem to have the potential to cause damage to pancreatic cells, increasing the risk of malignant tumours. Now for the first time, live bacteria from cystic pancreatic lesions that are precursors to pancreatic cancer, have been analysed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The study, which is published in Gut Microbes, can lead to prophylactic interventions using local antibiotics.

The Breast Cancer Association's award 2021 goes to chief physician and KI professor Per Hall. He is recognized for his broad research on how breast cancer can be prevented and detected early with refined and individual methods.

Researcher and KI alumnus Ahmadreza Djalali has been awarded the 2021 Courage to Think Award, from Scholars at Risk (SAR).

KI researcher Erika Jonsson Laukka has been granted a project grant from the Swedish Research Council for her research within post-COVID syndrome.

Analysing all the proteins that exist in a tissue type (the so-called proteome) can provide vital information on the causes of diseases and how they can best be treated. We talk to Janne Lehtiö, professor at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, about proteome-based medicine and what it can contribute to personalised cancer therapy.

On November 9, 2021, the Rolf Luft Research Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, Karolinska Institutet, was visited by the Crown Princess Victoria. Ongoing research on diabetes was presented to her and a visit to the laboratory was also included.

The gold complex auranofin has traditionally been used for treating rheumatism but is also being evaluated as a treatment for certain forms of cancer. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show that other molecules that inhibit the same biological system have a more specific effect than auranofin and therefore may have greater potential as cancer therapies. The results have been published in the journal Redox Biology.

A researcher at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, has received USD 200 000 for a project aiming to assess the effect of partial re-programming by the transient expression of the Yamanaka factors to rejuvenate the immune system to extend lifespan and health span.

Her research focuses on hereditary brain diseases and, among other things, cluster headache, an extremely painful disease which comes in attacks. It is not known what causes the disease, and so far, there are no effective treatments.

Line Gordon and Tobias Alfvén participated in Nobel Calling Stockholm 2021 with a lecture arranged by Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University. Focusing on the United Nations Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s latest report, the current state of knowledge about climate and environmental change and how this affects the world's children was summarized and discussed.

Catarina Almqvist Malmros, pediatrician at Astrid Lindgren's Childrens Hospital and professor at Karolinska Institutet, receives a research prize from the Swedish Society of Medicine's section Swedish Association for Allergology.

The Swedish Research Council awarded a grant at the department of dental medicine to support a project for the development of innovative approach to the management of periodontitis.

Biofabrication and Tissue Engineering (Biofab) is a new core facility at Biomedicum, Karolinska Institutet.

The risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in women who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 is likely lower than several earlier studies have suggested, a national study of all pregnant Swedish women tested for SARS-CoV-2 between March 2020 and January 2021 reports. The study, published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, shows that the association varies widely depending on the routines used for testing pregnant women.

A protein that protects cells from DNA damage, p53, is activated during gene editing using the CRISPR technique. Consequently, cells with mutated p53 have a survival advantage, which can cause cancer. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found new links between CRISPR, p53 and other cancer genes that could prevent the accumulation of mutated cells without compromising the gene scissors’ effectiveness. The study, published in Cancer Research, can contribute to tomorrow’s precision medicine.

Socioeconomic factors affect the risk of cardiovascular disease and the chances of recovery. New research from Karolinska Institutet interrogates the significance of socioeconomic factors for sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The study, which is published in Circulation, shows that education and income impact survival rates in both men and women.

Fourteen researchers connected to Karolinska Institutet are on the 2021 list of highly cited researchers presented by Clarivate, the company behind Web of Science. In all, the list includes some 6,600 researchers from across the globe.

Six researchers at FyFa have been granted project funds from the Swedish research council to the amount of 22 million SEK.

Federico Iovino, Assistant Professor and group leader at the Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, has been recognised "World Expert" in the field "Streptococcus pneumoniae” by Expertscape, a website that objectively ranks physicans, researchers and institutions by their expertise in more than 29,000 biomedical topics.

After an 18-month hiatus due to the pandemic, the doors to KI's conferment ceremony at Stockholm City Hall could finally be reopened. Not only one – but two nights in a row – the organizers Akademiska arranged ceremonies held to celebrate all new doctors who have defended their doctoral thesis in the autumn 2019 and spring 2020 along with honorary doctors and jubilee doctors.

Medicinska Föreningen (MF) in Stockholm is the largest student union at Karolinska Institutet. Every year MF awards a teacher with the award Mäster, to someone who has been teaching for an extended period of time, in an inspirational and pedagogical way or who initiated and implemented lasting improvements in the education. This year the award goes to Ellinor Kenne. It's the first time in a long time that someone at FyFa receives this award, and with the large amount of teaching that the departm

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Umeå University, and the University of Bonn have identified a new group of molecules that have an antibacterial effect against many antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Since the properties of the molecules can easily be altered chemically, the hope is to develop new, effective antibiotics with few side effects. The findings have been published in the scientific journal PNAS.

KI's researchers are awarded 491 100 000 SEK in research grants from the Swedish Research Council (VR grant). Yajun Liang receives 2 400 000 SEK for her life-course study on cardiovascular diseases.

The Swedish Research Council grants 14 research projects at KI for their research about postcovid. A total of SEK 50 million is granted, of which SEK 33,800,000 is awarded to nine research projects at Karolinska Institutet.

The Union World Conference on Lung Health is the world’s largest gathering of clinicians and public health workers, health programme managers, policymakers, researchers and advocates working to end the suffering caused by lung disease, with a focus specifically on the challenges faced by low-and lower-middle income populations. This year the conference took place virtually from 19 October to 22 October, 2021.