News archive

On 25 April it was eight years since Ahmadreza Djalali, Swedish citizen and doctor of disaster medicine at Karolinska Institutet, was arrested while on a visit to Iran. Karolinska Institutet’s president, Annika Östman Wernerson, and vice-president, Martin Bergö, have written an open letter to Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs and minister for education, calling on them to use all means available to increase the pressure on Iran to free Dr Djalali and other Swedish citizens.

Dominika Radziun, a former PhD student at Karolinska Institutet, and currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Donders Institute, The Netherlands, has recently been awarded one of the five Glushko Dissertation Prizes for her doctoral thesis entitled "Body perception and brain plasticity in blind and sighted individuals".

This summer, the 27th Nordic Congress of Gerontology will take place. The theme this year is “Ageing in a Transforming World,” and the congress will be held from June 12 to 14, arranged by Karolinska Institutet (KI). It has been 20 years since it was last held in Stockholm, and the most recent time it was in Sweden was in 2014 in Gothenburg.

Cloud-based personal health records are on the rise globally. This article series introduces the concept of a GPOC of PHRs, consisting of five parts, with the current article focusing on systematic review and meta-analysis. It scrutinizes technical, computer scientific, and security-based prerequisites, analyzing twelve factors including data security, efficiency, cost, integrity, cryptography, and access.

Do you use clean water?

In accession to Valborg, 1 of May and Ascension Day, the reception in Aula Medica has different opening hours.

An international research team, led by Tibor Harkany and Robert Schnell at Karolinska Institutet and MedUni Vienna's Center for Brain Research, set out to find ways of influencing hormone release to reduce stress reactions in post-traumatic stress disorder. They came across secretagogin, which regulates the release of some of the most fundamental and indispensable neurotransmitters and hormones.

In a study recently published in Nature, an international research team led by Karolinska Institutet and MedUni Vienna, addressed how and why acute heat exposure, in conditions reminiscent of a sauna session or limited exposure to the sun, leads to reduced food intake.

Neuropeptides, which are broadly considered to modulate synaptic communication, can have unique and life-long effects on brain development, particularly the wiring of neuronal circuits. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and MedUni Vienna now show that the presence of the neuropeptide galanin during a critical window of brain development is imperative for neurons to connect efficaciously to one another. The study is published in in Nature Communications.

The 2024 Karolinska Comprehensive Cancer Centre Day draw a large number of experts in the field of cancer research from KI and Karolinska University Hospital. The theme this year was prevention, with particular attention directed to scientific advances and remaining challenges, as well as to how involving patients in prevention enhances quality of care.

The Berzelius Medal in gold from the Swedish Chemical Society is 2024 awarded to Roman Zubarev, professor of medical proteomics at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Karolinska Institutet.

Davide Liborio Vetrano has received EU funding in the context of Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks for his project entitled "UnderstandiNg fraIlty tOwards a future of healthy ageing (UNION)". The European Commission funds research and innovation projects to boost top researchers' careers through mobility and innovative doctoral and postdoctoral training. The project will start in 2025 and Davide Liborio Vetrano is the Principal Investigator at Karolinska Institutet.

From 15.00 on April 30 and on May 1, the KI Housing office will be closed for the celebration of Walpurgis and the 1st of May Holiday.

The large hall at Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm was buzzing with life on Friday morning 12 April when general physicians from all over Sweden practiced mass casualty management and triage, using the simulation exercise AnTriEx, which is developed and instructed by the research group Global Disaster Medicine - Health Needs and Responses at KI.

The Department of Physiology and Pharmacology is celebrating 75 years since its royal inauguration on the Solna campus. But FyFa's history goes further back than that - and looks forward to many years of community and outstanding research and teaching. On 23 April, the department celebrates with a full day of lectures and a Dragons’ Den.

Region Stockholm and Karolinska Institutet (KI) have the common goal of improving dental care in the Stockholm County through research and development. The steering group KI/Region Stockholm for dental research (SOF) announces funding for clinical dental research.

The Swedish Government has decided that Karolinska Institutet may return the Finnish remains in KI's anatomical collection. The issue of returning the Finnish remains was raised by the committee for the return of Finnish remains in 2018. KI has been working towards this possibility for a long time.

During Kulturnatt Stockholm (Culture Night) on 20 April, The Cell opened to visitors. The Cell is a place where art helps to explain the complex world of life science. The National Museum of Science and Technology is responsible for the initiative and Karolinska Institutet is involved as a knowledge partner and a bridge between the world of research and the public events at The Cell.

Tips from KI Grants Office about current calls.

Are you tormented by an exaggerated fear of harming your child? Relax – it’s common and research shows that it’s also treatable.

Following extensive investment in custom-built facilities, the Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Core Facility (KI-SMMS), is operating at full speed as of Fall 2023.

This is a summary of the digital information meeting that prof Maria Eriksdotter, head of the project steering group, together with the departmental heads of MedH and BioNut held on 16 April addressing all staff at BioNut and MedH. President of KI, Annika Östman Wernerson and University Director, Veronika Sundström also joined the meeting for dialogue and questions.

After 4 semesters with committed participants, the leadership development program FAL Nord (Future Academic Leaders Nord) has now ended. Kristiina Tammimies from KBH participated and has brought valuable knowledge with her to her current and future leadership.

April 15 was the last day to apply for programmes starting in the autumn term 2024. By the end of the day, more than 23 000 people had applied for a programme or independent course at Karolinska Institutet. KI also achieved high rankings in a new survey on students' dream workplace.

Last Friday, 12 April, the internal investigators looking into the freezer malfunction that occurred in the Neo building over the 2023 Christmas break presented their report. The researchers and personnel most affected were invited to a staff meeting where, among others, Dean of KI South Matti Sällberg and Chief Security Officer Magnus Håkansson, who led the investigation, gave an account of their findings.

Hi Malin Aspö, doctoral student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics. On May 3 you will defend your thesis "Life changing moments - transitions and critical points in young-onset dementia". What is the main focus of the thesis?

Bacterial meningitis is a devastating infectious disease because, even when cured, most survivors live with permanent neurological disabilities such as motor impairment, cognitive delay, hearing and vision loss, seizures, and psychiatric disorders, due to neuronal damage caused by the infection. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now revealed new insights into the mechanisms of bacterial brain invasion and neuronal damage during bacterial meningitis.

The SciLifeLab bioinformatics platform (NBIS) arranges weekly drop-in sessions, open for anyone doing academic research with questions about bioinformatics.

The theme was sustainability.
Deans of dental programmes, education and research managers from universities in Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland gathered for the second Nordic Dean Meeting here in Sweden. The programme included lectures on sustainability and group discussions that resulted in cross-border collaborations.

Professor Emeritus Gunnar Bjursell received the Bernadotte Award on 10 April. He is awarded the prize for his many years of research and major educational efforts on cultural engagement and its effects on the brain, well-being and health.

On April 1, Mattias Carlsten and his research group moved from Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) to the Department of Laboratory Medicine (Labmed).

Microsoft recently adjusted the storage volume included in the user licences that apply to Swedish higher education institutions.

Several of KI’s programmes include on-site training as one of the teaching methods. On-site training is sometimes called VFU, which is the abbreviation of the Swedish term, and was previously known as clinical education. We asked two KI students, physiotherapy student Elin and psychology student Jonas, what it’s like to do on-site training and what to think about before going on your first placement.

Time flies and we are already halfway through the spring term 2024. Courses run as usual, although there is a new, minor involvement for MBB in the three-week course Medical Scientific Theory and Methodology in term 6 of the medical programme (Björn Högberg).

As the current Director of doctoral education at NVS, Erik Sundström, chooses to step down as Director, in connection with his retirement in August 2024, a new Director of doctoral education has now been appointed. It will be Ulrica Nilsson, professor at the Division of Nursing - who has been the deputy Director of doctoral education in recent years - who will now take on the role of Director of Studies. By her side, she will have Grégoria Kalpouzos, docent at the Department of ARC.

A lorry explodes on the E4 motorway, there is a fire at the Hovet arena, someone takes hostages at Tom Titts, there's an explosion at Arlanda - it all happens at the same time and the medical services in Region Stockholm have to deal with a large number of injured patients at once. Fortunately, it was all just an exercise. The exercise, which is part of the TKS course, now aims to be developed into a national course concept.

Thursday 21 March KI President Annika Östman Wernerson, Vice- President Martin Bergö and University Director Veronika Sundström, met with representatives from MBB to talk about the departments’ activities and on how we can strengthen our dialogue and cooperation going forward.

The Committee for Doctoral Education have revised the requirements for a PhD compilation thesis to be defended at KI. The new requirements allow the inclusion of more types of papers to be included in a PhD compilation thesis, while still requiring that at least two have been accepted for publication at the time the application for dissertation is sent in to the Dissertation Committee of KI. A new requirement that a description of how the PhD learning outcomes have been met, is also added.

Angelique has a background in KI, where she obtained her medical degree, her path has been paved through many years of clinical service at Karolinska University Hospital and she is a specialist in both gynecology & obstetrics and gyneoncology.

The American Society of Clinical Investigation, ASCI, has appointed Göran K. Hansson as an honorary member at the society's annual conference in Chicago.

The deadline for incoming fee-paying students to apply for accommodation from KI Housing is June 16.

Dr Joseph Kabatende is a Health Products and Regulatory Systems Specialist working for the WHO. He completed his PhD in 2023 from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden after defending his doctoral thesis entitled “Pharmacovigilance of Mass Drug Administration for Control of Schistosomiasis and Soil Transmitted Helminths in Rwanda".

This qualitative study aimed to investigate the implementation of, and satisfaction with, a telephone-based peer support program for new fathers.

A new handbook on interprofessional learning (IPL) is now available for healthcare professionals. The handbook can be used for guidance, both in daily work and in meetings with students.

On 12 April, the internal investigation into the freezer failure during the Christmas holidays in 2023 was presented in the Neo building at Karolinska Institutet. The investigation has been led by KI's head of security and it points to clear technical as well as organisational shortcomings. Taken together, a chain of these shortcomings caused the breakdown that led to the destruction of research material and the loss of years of research work. The inquiry recommends a number of measures.

Researchers’ Grand Prix is a competition that challenges researchers to present their research in the most comprehensible, captivating and inspiring way – in just four minutes. The competition will be held during the event "Forskarfredag" organized by Vetenskapens hus on September 27th.

Three researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant. ERC grants are the preeminent European grants for individual principal investigators. The researchers will each receive EUR 2.5 million over a five-year period.

Tips from KI Grants Office regarding current calls