News archive

During the Christmas holidays, a freezer failure occurred in the Neo building on KI's Flemingsberg campus. The automatic filling of the cryotanks with liquid nitrogen was interrupted for an unknown reason. As a result, the temperature in 16 of 19 cryogenic tanks rose and large amounts of biological research material have been destroyed. An investigation with internal and external experts is now underway to find out how this failure could have happened.

Tips from Grants Office regarding current calls

Hi Charlotta Elleby, doctoral student at the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. On February 1 you will defend your thesis "Identifying individuals at risk of fragility fractures in a dental setting". What is the main focus of the thesis?

KI's agreement with Master Design, our supplier of profile products, expires on January 31. To be sure to get profile products delivered before then, orders must be placed in the webshop by January 25 at the latest.

To mechanistically understand what happens in the living body under physiological and pathological conditions, one critically relies on a non-invasive high spatiotemporal resolution research tool. It has been challenging to create such a tool and tremendous time and efforts have been committed to solve this difficult task.

From January 1, 2024, researchers at KI can publish articles open access without having to pay a publication fee in all journals from the publishers Frontiers, MJS Publishing (formerly Medical Journals Sweden) and PLOS. The agreements are financed by the Swedish Research Council, Forte, Formas and Vinnova.

Co-prescribing potency drugs such as Viagra and organic nitrates for angina is associated with a 35 to 40 percent increased risk of death and about 70 percent higher risk of heart attack and heart failure. This is according to a Swedish registry study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). The Swedish researchers are now urging caution.

From the jubilee year of 2010 and onwards, Karolinska Institutet awards medals to people who have made special efforts in support of KI’s activities. There are three categories: the Gold Medal, the Grand Silver Medal and the Silver Medal. Medals are awarded in conjunction with various academic ceremonies.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects over 10% of adults worldwide. Mental health is an important yet under-recognized issue in patients with CKD. Depression is common and related to poor prognosis in CKD patients, but previous research has primarily focused on dialysis patients, leading to an insufficient understanding of depression in earlier stages of CKD.

Women who suffer depression during or after pregnancy have a higher risk of death by both natural and unnatural causes, a new study of childbirth in Sweden published in The BMJ reports. The increased risk peaks in the month after diagnosis but remains elevated for as long as 18 years afterwards.

Welcome to Christina-Evmorfia Kampitsi's doctoral thesis defence on Friday 26 January 2024 at 9:00 in Petrénsalen, Nobels väg 12 B, KI.

Congratulations to Ruixin Lu, Michael Dismorr, Natalie Glaser and Ulrik Sartipy at the research group Thoracic Surgery. Their article, published in JACC: Advances June 2023, is of one of the Journal’s Top Ten Original Research Articles for 2023.

Maternal suicide is an alarming public health issue and the second most common cause of death during the postnatal period. New research from the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM) shows that mothers with clinically diagnosed perinatal depression had a three times higher risk of suicidal behavior compared to mothers without perinatal depression.

CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment) is led by a number of EU organizations with the aim of advancing how research is assessed in order to maximise its quality, transparency and impact. KI has now signed the agreement together with a number of other Swedish universities.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown that nasal drops with IgA antibodies can protect mice from SARS-CoV-2 infection. The results imply a new way to protect individuals at high risk from different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and possibly other infections. The study is published in PNAS.

New doctoral student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS.

New doctoral student at the Division of Physiotherapy, NVS.

Women with autoimmune disease are more likely to suffer from depression during pregnancy and after childbirth; conversely, women with a history of perinatal depression are at higher risk of developing autoimmune disease, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reports.

Psychological gender differences persist in countries with improved living conditions, according to a study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science by researchers from Karolinska Institutet. Some differences become larger and others smaller as women seem to benefit more than men from improved living conditions. The findings confirm to some extent the so-called gender paradox.

UTokyo-KI LINK has been awarded the international collaborative research program ASPIRE- A grant from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)

Do you feel overwhelmed by all information at the start of the semester? No worries! The University Library has gathered tips to help you stay on top of things.

The National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently partnered with Science to survey the questions that still need to be answered if we are to advance nanotechnology in society.

Sophie Erhardt, professor in Experimental Psychiatry, KI, receives a 3 million SEK grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, for the development of drugs targeting immune-induced cognitive decline and psychosis. This funding marks a significant step in Professor Erhardt's pursuit of innovative solutions within the realm of mental health. The project stands among the ten distinguished Swedish scientific life science initiatives honored with grants.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have discovered that the gut microbiome can influence how well people respond to mRNA COVID vaccines. The study, published in the journal npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, suggests that certain bacteria in the gut can enhance the immune response to the vaccine, whereas other bacteria may weaken it.

We are proud to contribute to the paper ‘Transcriptional determinants of lipid mobilization in human adipocytes’ from the Mikael Ryden and Niklas Mejhert lab at the Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet.

Due to increased rents from our landlords, the rents will be increased from January 1st, 2024.

Young people who have had surgery for obesity do not improve their mental health despite significant and permanent weight loss. However, bariatric surgery increases the risk of early alcohol problems. This is according to the largest long-term study of young people who have undergone bariatric surgery, conducted at Lund University and Karolinska Institutet, among others.

Karolinska Institutet is the university from which the most articles on physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis have been published since the beginning of the 2000s.

Hi John Ressman, doctoral student at the Division of Physiotherapy. On January 26 you will defend your thesis "The Single Leg Squat in clinical testing. Aspects of reliability, validity, and associated factors". What is the main focus of the thesis?

A common practice in the Nordic countries has sparked conversations on social media, namely to let babies nap outside in strollers all year around including in subzero tempratures. Pictures and videos on social media of babies sleeping outside have left some viwers wondering if it is safe and if there are any benefits. Tobias Alfvén was invited to Swedish Radio to answer some of the questions around the practice.

Many Swedes live with fatty liver – and it doesn’t have to be dangerous. But for some, it kicks off a course of disease in which persistent inflammation leads to cirrhosis. Medicinsk Vetenskap has talked to researchers who look after the liver – the behemoth of the belly that has a somewhat magical ability to recover, along with enormous overcapacity.

In an unbiased cross-checking of a wide array of health registers, an exciting connection emerged. Could a common and cheap blood lipid lowering drug from the standard repertoire help patients with the liver diseases PSC? This question is now the subject of a clinical trial.

Peter Jonson needed a liver transplant after unexpectedly learning that his liver was in poor condition. Today he is doing well and does not miss the lifestyle that made him sick. "Non-alcoholic beer tastes really good", he says.

When Martin Bengtsson found out he had fatty liver disease, he decided to start eating healthier and exercising more. "A lot of people think you can't do anything about fatty liver - but you can," he says.

Liver doctors tell us that the general public’s level of knowledge about the liver is surprisingly low. A study confirms this.

It is possible to remove 80 per cent of a healthy liver without it losing its function. But how much can be removed from a diseased liver in which some tissue is already lost? This issue is central to reducing mortality after liver surgery.

Professor Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg has come up with a way to produce tiny livers, called liver spheroids.

Impaired cognition among preschoolers born very early can be predicted already at discharge from neonatal care. This is according to a study from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden and University College Cork, Ireland published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

There does not appear to be any profound differences between so-called exposure-based CBT and traditional CBT in the treatment of fibromyalgia, according to a study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. Both forms of treatment produced a significant reduction in symptoms in people affected by the disease. The study is one of the largest to date to compare different treatment options for fibromyalgia and is published in the journal PAIN.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital have followed recipients of the new updated COVID-19 vaccine and analysed the antibody response to different SARS-CoV-2 variants. The results show a surprisingly strong response to the now dominant and highly mutated Omicron variants. [This news article has been updated]

On Saturday, November 18th, the KI Network Lifestyle4Health welcomed the public to an informative afternoon at Medicinska Föreningen at Karolinska Institutet. The afternoon was filled with lectures, health marker measurements, and practical "patient cases" that participants could analyse to suggest recommendations for lifestyle changes.

This is a short report from the project team working on the implementation of KI RIMS. The posts are aimed at those who are interested in the work of adapting the product Elements from Symplectic to KI's requirements and conditions and want to follow the development process.

Join us on a journey through history to meet the people behind the research that today makes up the Department of Neurobiology, Care Science and Society.

The Ulla and Ingemar Dahlberg Foundation has decided to donate SEK 50 million to Karolinska Institutet. The grant will be used for a new professorship in vision science with a focus on ocular neurobiology and have the full name "Ulla och Ingemar Dahlbergs professur i synvetenskap med inriktning mot okulär neurobiologi" (Ulla and Ingemar Dahlberg's Professorship in Visual Science with specialization in Ocular Neurobiology).

In a world characterised by challenges and changes, I would like to say an extra special thank you to all of you. Your commitment and flexibility have been crucial. Enjoy a well-deserved break over the holidays.

The University Director has made a decision to start a new project aimed at modernising the working methods and workplace of KI's central administration.

The year is ending, and President Annika Östman Wernerson, University Director Veronika Sundström and Vice President Martin Bergö express their gratitude in a filmed Christmas greeting.

As the year draws to a close, I would like to join Vice President Martin Bergö and University Director Veronika Sundström in taking this opportunity to thank all our staff and students for the important work you have done in 2023.

Harald Lund, Matthew Hunt, Zerina Kurtović & Camilla Svensson have published an article in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. They have discovered a unique structure in the blood-nerve barrier in a region of the peripheral nervous system called the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). The study has implications for understanding how diseases target the nervous system and how they can be treated.

In the fall of 2023, the university management presented nine focus areas for KI's future development, major issues that affect all employees and students at KI. "Our conscious strategy has been to try to listen to and understand what Karolinska Institutet needs here and now," says President Annika Östman Wernerson.