News archive

Welcome to Suganthi Jaganathan´s defense of the thesis ”Applying novel methods to study long-term exposure to air pollution and temperature and annual mortality in India” on May 6th.

On April 10–11, 2025, representatives from all medical faculties at Swedish universities gathered at Karolinska Institutet (KI) for the spring NIMUS meeting – a forum for national collaboration on international mobility in medical education. NIMUS stands for the Network for the Internationalisation of Medical Education in Sweden.

The ongoing political situation in the US also raises many questions about KI's storage in Microsoft's cloud services, which are available to both staff and students. Here, the IT Office collects and answers frequently asked questions.

Congratulations to Mikael Rydén, the first Swede to be awarded the Camillo Golgi Prize.

Patrik Ljunggren joins the Department of Neuroscience on 28 April 2025 and will be working alongside HR manager Felicia Petersson. We seized the opportunity to ask him a few questions, in view of his first days at work.

Professor Jonas F Ludvigsson at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, and Örebro University Hospital has been awarded the Solstickepriset 2025.

KI Professor Anna Mia Ekström joins the KIB podcast in a conversation about the Face of AIDS Film Archive, the unique film archive documenting the global HIV epidemic 1986-2021. We talk about the importance of the current political landscape in the fight against HIV and AIDS, the results achieved in terms of treatment and the very real risk that these results will be reversed. We talk about the role of documentation and activism: ‘We don't see that today [...] and we know that silence kills.'

The final day to register for the Swedish Suicide Research Conference is rapidly approaching. To secure your spot, please complete your registration by April 28.

The application period for this autumn’s national programmes and courses expired on 15 April. The number of applications to KI’s study programmes increased by 10 per cent compared to last year, with the Speech and Language Pathology Programme seeing the sharpest rise.

A law to quickly limit the spread of infection in the event of a pandemic and research efforts to strengthen Sweden's pandemic preparedness and close knowledge gaps in the event of new outbreaks. This was included in the interim report from the Inquiry on Strengthening Future Infection Control, which KI Professor Jan Albert submitted to the government yesterday.

The report 'Antalet demenssjuka och kostnader för demenssjukdomar i Sverige 2023', commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs last autumn, was recently presented to Anna Tenje, Minister for Older People and Social Security. KI researchers Anders Wimo and Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga have been primarily responsible for the report, which shows a forecast with a great increase for the number of people with dementia by 2050 and for the heavy financial responsibility of municipalities.

Ahead of this year's program start of IMM's global master's program in toxicology, the number of applicants has increased significantly.

Anna-Stina Malmborg, former docent of clinical microbiology at Karolinska Institutet and consultant and director of clinical bacteriology at Karolinska University Hospital for 17 years, has passed away at the age of 95. She and her husband Gunnar Höglund (1931–2019) set up the foundation that finances the Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education (KIPRIME).

Earlier this month, the Swedish Research Council published a report on the quality and impact of medical research in Sweden. The fact that Karolinska Institutet emerges in a very positive light fills me with pride – our research is of a very high scientific standard and has given rise to groundbreaking discoveries of major societal importance.

Ola Larsson has been appointed as Head of the Department of Oncology-Pathology (OnkPat), starting July 1, 2025. The appointment is for five years, and the decision was signed by Dean Carl Johan Sundberg on April 10, 2025. Ola Larsson, who previously served as vice Head at OnkPat, will take over the role from Lars Holmgren.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund (Barncancerfonden) has decided to grant funding for paediatric oncology research over the next one to six years. Diagnoses in focus include brain tumours and leukaemia, the most common childhood cancer diagnoses. Together, 29 researchers will share SEK 64 million. Seven of these researchers work at KI.

To strengthen internal communication and enhance our digital community, FyFa is launching a new Microsoft Teams group: All at FyFa on 24 April. This platform is designed to bring everyone at FyFa together in one central, easy-to-navigate space for communication and interaction. Questions? Contact the group’s moderators Julia Spector or Sabina de Villiers.

A new round of digital training on information security is now being sent out to you as an employee at KI. Short lessons on password management, phishing, disinformation and how to report incidents.

KI as part of the NeurotechEU alliance is pleased to inform that there are 3 course fee waivers available for the RU Summer School on Entrepreneurship in Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (Online).

During the weekend of May 3-4, some of the floors of the public areas in ANA Futura will be cleaned.

Despite the widespread use of pain rating scales in neonatal care worldwide, a new Cochrane review shows that current tools for assessing pain in newborns are based on very low quality evidence. According to the review, none of the pain rating scales in use today are methodologically reliable enough to measure pain.

Daniel Helldén, researcher at the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet, is on the Forbes' 30 under 30 Europe 2025 list in the Science & Healthcare category.

From April 15.00 April 17, to April 21, the KI Housing office will be closed for the celebration of the Easter holidays.

On 26–27 March, Sweden hosted its first national meeting on extracellular vesicles (EVs) in Stockholm supported by KI Network and Conference Funding. The event gathered 171 researchers, young scientists, and industry experts from across the country — and beyond — to share the latest discoveries in this fast-growing field.

During the spring, KI RIMS and the bibliometric system were updated with new subject headings and classes from the Standard for Swedish Classification of Research Fields, SSIF2025. MeSH from NLM has also been updated for 2025. Existing terms for persons, groups and publications have been updated centrally in KI RIMS and the bibliometric system. You can modify or add more/new terms to increase your visibility, so please check the keywords on your profile page and research group in KI RIMS.

The government is funding Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS) with SEK 80 million in 2025. The special support will be used, among other things, for continued investments in the sustainable development and implementation of precision medicine in cancer care. Richard Rosenquist Brandell, professor at KI and director of GMS, describes the initiative as an important investment in the future of healthcare.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine (MWLC) announces up to ten grants for Postdoctoral positions in the field of Reparative Medicine, including stem cell regenerative medicine, bioengineering, reprogramming and biomanufacturing toward translation.

The Ministry of Social Affairs has decided to allocate 4.9 million SEK to the innovation project BrAInChild, as part of the larger initiative within Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS). BrAInChild aims to develop and implement advanced precision diagnostics for children with cancer, potentially leading to more individualized and effective treatments.

The Workshop on Genome Editing Tool Developments and Clinical Applications (#HKCRISPR25) was successfully held at the Hong Kong Science Park in April 2025.

CIMED announces a planning grant for researchers at Campus Flemingsberg, active in basic and/or translational research with clinical relevance.

The ANA Futura Steering Committee has decided on a new procedure for receiving packages in ANA Futura.

New initiatives and new collaborations are constantly arising in the life science field, both within and outside KI’s walls, making it hard to form a comprehensive picture of everything that’s happening. As presidential advisor, Clara Hellner will be providing insight into what’s going on and the challenges facing it.

People with a certain heart valve abnormality are at increased risk of severe heart rhythm disorders, even after successful valve surgery. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden published in the European Heart Journal. The condition is more common in women and younger patients with valve disorder and can, in the worst case, lead to sudden cardiac arrest.

The course catalogue for the autumn semester of 2025 is now open for application! Please note that the application period is three weeks, with the final application day being 6 May.

Lindsay Davies, an researcher at Karolinska Institutet, has been elected Incoming Vice Chair for Europe within the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT), a global organization that brings together scientists, clinicians, regulators, and industry partners in the rapidly growing field of advanced therapies.

At the moment, the library has a trial on the database Overton! In Overton, you can find, among other things, policy documents, government guidelines, and reports from non-governmental organisations. The database can be used to search for grey literature. It can also be used to identify and measure the impact of research on policy issues, as references are extracted from the documents.

In a recently published article in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at Karolinska Institutet present results indicating that repeated treatment with piperaquine, an antimalarial drug, can lead to parasites developing decreased sensitivity to this drug. These findings may impact the use of piperaquine in the future.

International experts highlight the research of Jon Lundberg, Eddie Weizberg, Mattias Carlström and their colleagues on nitrate and nitric oxide (NO) as particularly important when evaluating research at Swedish universities.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows how a small antibody fragment can block fertilisation by targeting a key protein on the surface of the egg. This discovery brings a non-hormonal contraceptive one step closer to reality. The study has been published in the journal PNAS.

On March 1st, Kristina Aspvall took over as the new Director of Research school for clinicians in psychiatry.

To enable Eatery's establishment, Akademiska Hus is investing approximately SEK 50 million in a renovation. The work should be completed by spring 2026 when Eatery opens the doors to the new restaurant.

New finansiell administrator at the division of Family Medicine and Primary Care.

The 5th edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Endocrine and Neuroendocrine Tumors has now been officially published in print. This highly anticipated reference work is widely regarded as the global gold standard for tumor diagnosis, offering a comprehensive synthesis of traditional histopathology with cutting-edge digital and molecular pathology.

Peter Strang, professor emeritus of palliative medicine at the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet, has been ranked as number 19 in his research field by Scholar GPS 2024. Scholar GPS is a global platform that analyzes and ranks researchers based on their academic productivity, impact, and quality.

The Global Child Health and Sustainable Development Goals research group recently convened to discuss various health research initiatives in Nigeria. The meeting featured insightful presentations from researchers and PhD students, highlighting critical issues and ongoing research in the realm of child health and medical oxygen service delivery.

A new study in Life Science Alliance reveals a key genetic connection between cancer susceptibility and tissue regeneration. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet identified a super-enhancer region upstream of the MYC gene essential for tumor development and tissue repair.

The Andersson Lab at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet has been awarded a grant of DKK 3,990,001 over three years by the LEO Foundation for their project, “Unraveling Skin Origins: Developing In Utero Gene Manipulation Tools to Decipher Ectoderm and Mesoderm Contributions to Skin Health and Disease.”

To produce reports on project balances and research projects, you can use VIS or UBW, which have the same functions as in ‘Forskarwebben’, which was closed in January.

Older individuals who struggle to chew hard food have a higher risk of becoming malnourished or experiencing significant weight loss over time. This is shown in a new Swedish population-based study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, who followed more than 1,500 individuals for over six years. The study is published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging.

Dr. Karolina Borankova, a member of Professor Nils-Göran Larsson's group at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet, has been awarded the prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship from Cancerfonden. The project aims to investigate whether mitochondrial DNA mutations that affect mitochondrial function, impact lung cancer growth and tumor burden.