News archive

Carl Henrik Ek has recently been appointed visiting professor of AI/machine learning at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset (KI SÖS), Karolinska Institutet. To take advantage of the new technology, development must take place in synergy between mathematics, computer science and medicine, says Carl Henrik Ek, who also leads a research group in machine learning at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Congratulations to Principal researcher and research group leader Francois Lallemend, who has been appointed Professor of Neurobiology of Sensory Systems at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet from 1 December 2023.

Carsten Daub is newly appointed scientific director for SciLifeLab. He will act as the link for the collaboration between one of Sweden's largest research centers and Karolinska Institutet.

On 8 January, 2024, ten of KBH's research groups will move their lab operations from Bioclinicum to premises in Biomedicum.

Sverker Johansson, Division of Physiotherapy, receives SEK 1 115 318 in the call Clinical Therapy Research. He receives the grant for his project ”One size” passar ingen – utveckling av en personcentrerad adaptiv mobilhälsolösning för fysisk aktivitet efter stroke eller transitorisk ischemisk attack”. Congratulations!

Tips from KI Grants Office about current calls.

The use of AI makes it possible for women with a high risk of breast cancer to be identified in mammography screening examinations so that the cancer can be caught earlier. An international research group led from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden can now show that the method is effective in different European countries. The study is published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.

Eight researchers at the Department of Neuroscience have been awarded project grants from the Swedish Research Council in the category of medicine and health.

One year after the registration of the emergency contact (ICE) was made, an e-mail reminder should be sent out asking to update the contact(s) if necessary. The wrong e-mail message has now been sent out and the system provider is working to correct this. The e-mail message that has now been sent out is wrong and can be ignored.

At the end of November, Jenny Broman started as Financial controller at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH).

New search engine available in Canvas: Smartsearch.

The large number of external research grants this autumn give the researchers at the Department of Medicine Solna (MedS) the possibility to continue their important work and to start up new projects that will contribute to new knowledge benefitting development of medicine and the society.

A new laboratory for MRI examinations was recently inaugurated at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge. The purchase of a new MRI scanner, following a donation from the Erling Persson Foundation, creates completely new opportunities for the Stockholm Region and Karolinska Institutet for both doctors and researchers.

People with close relatives who have suffered from cardiovascular disease may benefit from eating more oily fish. This is according to a new study led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Circulation.

All employees and affiliates have a personal profile page on ki.se. On the evening of December 14, your current page will be replaced by a new one that retrieves all the information from KI RIMS. If you have made changes to the text on your current page after September 7, you need to redo them in KI RIMS.

We hope you will join our Christmas calendar!

From 12 December, the IT Office will use a new case management system to handle support cases from staff. This is the first step in a change that will affect the rest of the university administration in 2024.

At MBB, we are teaching at the undergraduate, postgraduate as well as doctoral level. Our vision is to provide education in the molecular life sciences that is of a very high standard and significantly improves the skills of our students. Our overriding aim with the teaching at MBB is to raise the general knowledge in biochemistry and related subjects from that of the beginner students, towards that of skilled professionals.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Cell reports shows that tumor-associated macrophages, which are white blood cells that are found in breast tumors, can both help and hinder the spread of cancer cells to other organs. The researchers found that macrophages that produce a substance called VEGF-C reduce the spread of breast cancer to the lungs but increase the spread to the lymph nodes. This may have implications for the prognosis and treatment of breast cancer.

In a recently published study, researchers at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics (MBB) at Karolinska Institutet have questioned the old paradigm surrounding isotopes of light elements—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. These isotopes have now emerged as more powerful than one thought.

Professor Johan Ärnlöv receives SEK 7,5 million in the call Research competence in primary care 2023. He receives the grant for his project "Chronic pain and the development of cardiovascular diseases". Congratulations!

The UTokyo-KI LINK programme was officially launched at a kick-off symposium at the University of Tokyo on November 9, 2023.

The Swedish Research Council has decided on the applications to be awarded grants within clinical therapy research. In total, almost SEK 210 million is granted for the years 2023-2027 to 28 researchers. Ten of them are researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Counting down to Christmas, a calendar of delight,
Each day's a surprise, keeping you active and bright.
Jump, walk, dance - a festive move to unfold,
In this active calendar, warmth and wellness to hold!

A study has shown that the distribution of HIV-1 subtypes in Sweden has changed a lot since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. This is largely due to the migration of already infected people to Sweden. The study focused on people who migrated from Ukraine, so that the care can be adapted to their needs. The results provide important information for future analysis and treatment.

The KI-Mayo collaboration is pleased to announce the competitive process for 2024 collaborative travel awards.

Hi Emelie Mälstam, doctoral student at the Division of Occupational Therapy. On December 8 you will defend your thesis "Make My Day – Exploring engaging occupations in stroke prevention and promotion of health". What is the main focus of the thesis?

Hannes Hagström at the Gastroenterology and Rheumatology Unit, Department of Medicine, Huddinge, receives the Rising Star Award 2024, from the United European Gastroenterology (UEG).

In conjunction with KI's visit to Tokyo in February 2023, connected to a workshop within Stockholm Trio for a sustainable future, we hosted an alumni event for about seventy guests from KI, KTH and SU. The evening offered, among other things, a talk with KI alumnus Takeaki Dohda, currently director of investments at Google in Tokyo (left in picture). With alumni, students, researchers and university representatives on site, collaboration was the thread of the day.

The global and professional alumni network of KI engages former students, researchers and employees of KI, promoting knowledge, research, education and interaction. We hope to inspire alumni involvement, professional networking and international collaboration, all vital to a dedicated and sustainable alumni network. On November 9th, we hosted an alumni dinner in Tokyo for this very purpose, strategically in conjunction with the launch-event for the new UTokyo-KI Link collaboration.

The Greater NY-Region Alumni Network recently met for its second time at The Rockefeller University in conjuction with the annual Nicholson Lecture organized by the university. This year, Professor Rickard Sandberg, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, was invited to give a lecture on “Single-Cell Technologies to Study Transcriptional Bursting and Alternative Splicing Regulation”.

Tips from Grants Office regarding current calls

Professor Gonçalo Castelo-Branco and Professor Jonas Frisén, Karolinska Institutet, are awarded distinguished professor grants from the Swedish Research Council, totalling just over SEK 62 million for the years 2024–2031.

Skin-to-skin contact between parent and child during the first hours after a very premature birth helps develop the child's social skills. This is according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and others. The study also shows that fathers may play a more important role than previous research has shown.

Professor Robert A. Harris is made honorary doctorate at the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF) Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The honour is given in recognition of Bob Harris’ exceptional contributions to the development of the university, especially in the context of the European University Alliance NeurotechEU project.

The Ministry of Education and Research has recently tasked Bertil Lindahl with producing source material for a renegotiation of the national ALF agreement (ref. no U2022/02845). The ALF is a national agreement entered into between the government and certain regions on collaboration on medical education, clinical research and healthcare development.

This is a summary of the information meeting that Maria Eriksdotter, Dean of KI South, together with the departmental head of MedH and the project leader, held on 29 November on Zoom addressing all staff at BioNut and MedH.

People in Sweden of non-European descent have almost three times as many eating disorder symptoms as people born in Sweden. But despite this, they have significantly less access to specialist treatment. This is according to new research from Karolinska Institutet published in BJPsych Open.

KI will upgrade Primula to 12.6 starting Thursday, November 30 from 3:00 p.m. No one will then be able to work with the Primula/PA web.

The upgrade is expected to be completed already at 21:00 on the same day.
You can find the client for Primula under "Digital tools" and then Primula client.

Eating disorders are debilitating conditions characterized by dysregulated eating and/or weight-control behaviors leading to significant impairment of psychosocial functioning and/or physical health. Both environmental factors and variation in multiple genetic variants influence eating disorder etiology and maintenance.

KI researcher Goran Papenberg has been granted a project grant from the Swedish Research Council for his research on the brain's ability to produce new neurons and its relevance for long-term memory and depression in aging.

His mission is to lead and develop the IT Office and contribute to KI’s continued digitization journey. Mattias Nordström has been the acting IT director since his predecessor Joakim Winter left last summer.

Of the 31 researchers appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellow this year, five will be active at Karolinska Institutet. The five-year grant is awarded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and provides young, promising research leaders with long-term research funding in Sweden.

A workshop was done 28-29 September on education for sustainable development that involved students, teachers, researchers and managers from the four universities.

We are unique at KI with our environmental certification. The audit in November 2023 showed continued very stable and positive development - and we were recommended continued ISO 1400 certification by the audit manager. So we continue to reduce our negative environmental impact - well done to all of us!

You can order printed KI Christmas cards with envelopes and digital Christmas cards (PDF). The motif this years is "Microbiome" by Ina Schuppe Koistinen, watercolor artist and docent at the Department MTC.

A large proportion of patients who start taking ADHD medication, especially young adults, stop within the first year. However, people who use ADHD medicine for a long time and in higher-than-average doses seem to have a higher risk of some cardiovascular diseases. This is according to two new studies led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and published in The Lancet Psychiatry and JAMA Psychiatry.

Vinnova (the Swedish governmental agency for innovation systems) is to finance the project "For efficient and sustainable use of health data through the integration of the DIGITAL-projects and GMS in Sweden (DIGIfor1healthSE)" with a grant of SEK 12 million over a period of four years. The project, which is designed to gather Sweden’s expertise on health data, involves TEF-Health at Karolinska Institutet and has SciLifeLab as the national coordinator.

On November 27, 2023, an exchange of sensors will begin in all KI's buildings on Campus Solna. The aim is to gain more knowledge about how our premises are used and contribute to creating a better indoor environment.