News archive

Proteins do not have a single shape, but are more like dynamic robots. But – how do they actually move? And what does this tell us about their function? Laura Orellana describes the movement of proteins using computer simulations – and has discovered a new drug target for glioblastoma brain tumours.

High levels of uric acid in midlife may significantly raise the risk for a serious type of irregular heartbeat in the decades that follow, even in people without traditional risk factors, new research from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of the American Heart Association shows.

Meet research group leader Olof Stephansson, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Solna.

Being affected by several cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, is linked to a greatly increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A new twin study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet suggests that the same genes may be behind the risk of both cardiometabolic diseases and dementia. The findings have been published in European Heart Journal.

​​​​​​​Meet Ning Xu Landén, research group leader at the division of dermatology and venereology, Department of Medicine, Solna.

Meet Åsa Wheelock, research group leader at the division of respiratory medicine, department of medicine, Solna.

Meet research group leader John Pernow, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Solna.

Hi Gabriella Bernhoff, Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. On February 3 you will defend your licentiate thesis "On the clinical assessment of persistent fatigue and pain", what is the main focus of the thesis?

Proteins can make any inventor green with envy. It is proteins that make the body work. But when these same super-substances make mistakes, we may get sick with things like cancer or Alzheimer's disease. The job of researchers is to sort out the proteins when they malfunction.

Do you have ideas for developing the pedagogical quality of higher education at KI? Apply for project funding by 14 March 2024.

Alzheimer disease begins decades before any symptoms, such as memory loss, start to show. Consequently, early diagnosis increases the chances of slowing the disease down with drugs. A new study on an inherited form of the disease shows that a protein called GFAP is a possible biomarker for very early stages of the disease. The study, conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Brain, could one day lead to an earlier detection of this serious and common disease.

Congratulations to Professor Marie Löf at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition who has received MSEK 4.9 from the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity. Her research project is on "Promoting positive mental health during pregnancy with a digital tool (HealthyMoms4MentalHealth-app): Effectiveness and implementation in maternity health care".

The Vascular Surgery Group celebrated it’s 50 years anniversary in late October last year. The exact birthday of the lab is difficult to set. Nevertheless, it was not difficult to select 1972 as an appropriate starting point when Siw Frebelius joined Jesper Swedenborg and they together initiated the foundation of a research group which has survived throughout 50 years. 

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the Centre for Imaging Research (CIR), SciLifeLab, and RISE have together received a grant of over SEK 100 million from the European Commission's Digital Europe programme. The project, called TEF-Health, will, among other things, promote the rapid introduction of new artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics solutions in healthcare.

Hi Andreas Wallin, PhD student at the Division of Physiotherapy. On January 27 you will defend your thesis "Balance Control in People with Multiple Sclerosis: Mechanisms, Experiences, Design and Feasibility of an Exercise Trial", what is the main focus of the thesis?

In a review paper published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Lund University describe the content and quality of the Swedish Medical Birth Register (MBR), using original Medical Birth Register data, Swedish-language and international publications based on the register. The researchers conclude that the register contains high-quality pregnancy-related information on more than 5 million births during five decades.

Antibiotic residues in wastewater and wastewater treatment plants in regions around China and India risk contributing to antibiotic resistance, and the drinking water may pose a threat to human health, according to an analysis from Karolinska Institutet published in The Lancet Planetary Health. The researchers also determined the relative contribution of various sources of antibiotic contamination in waterways, such as hospitals, municipals, livestock, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet uncover the function of the release factor mtRF1 in the final steps of mitochondrial protein synthesis. The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals new insights into a fundamental process in mitochondria.

On December 16, 2022, the KI president inaugurated the Centre for Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet. More than 150 people attended the event with representatives from the funding agencies present; the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation and Formas.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a method that should be able to predict whether a patient with breast cancer will benefit from a particular treatment or not. The cell-based method has been tested on patients with promising results, according to a study published in PNAS.

Nano-sized membrane bubbles known as extracellular vesicles activate the immune system in mice and seem to render their tumours sensitive to a type of immunotherapy drug called a checkpoint inhibitor. This is according to a new study published in Cancer Immunology Research by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Following a hiatus of 3 years due to Covid-19, the KI Research Network Tissue and Motion rose to the occasion of hosting the 11th Tissue and Motion conference, which was held at the Djurönäset Hotel on 9th – 10th November 2022.

Cluster headache, sometimes known as “suicide headache”, have been described as a predominantly male disease. New research from Karolinska Institutet now shows that women who have the disease are more affected in their daily lives. They have longer periods of pain, a higher frequency of related symptoms, use more prophylactic medicine and take more sick leave. The results are published in two studies in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers from the Division of Neurogeriatrics, NVS, has had an article published in EMBO Molecular Medicine. They have completed an active vaccination study in a mouse model with inherited small vessel disease called CADASIL with the aim to investigate whether vaccination can repair damaged vessels by clearing them from toxic protein Notch3 aggregates. These aggregates are present in CADASIL patients and in this mouse model.

Professor Nils-Göran Larsson, Roberta Filograna, Joanna Rorbach, and Annika Krüger at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics have recently been awarded research grants and fellowships for their research with the Division of molecular metabolism.

Suad Efendic, Stockholm, internationally recognized leading clinical researcher in diabetes, has died at the age of 85 after a long illness. He is survived by wife Mensura, sons Nedim and Enes with their families.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University have developed a new technology allowing simultaneous probing of several different histone marks in one individual cell and in thousands of cells at the same time. This new method allows to investigate in much greater detail how cells in the mouse brain acquire unique properties and specialize. The study is published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The diagnosis exhaustion disorder accounts for the majority of all long-term sick leave in Sweden. However, a research review indicates that the scientific evidence behind the diagnosis is weak.

Critical illness myopathy (CIM) is a common complication affecting ventilator-treated intensive care patients, which can lead to increased mortality/morbidity, prolonged hospital care, impaired patient quality of life, and increased healthcare costs. reported molecular pathogenesis of CIM during prolonged ICU stay, and potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. The study was recently published in Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

The origins of the serious cancer-like disease LCH have been identified by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Karolinska University Hospital. The findings presented in Science Immunology may lead to new, targeted treatments.

Laura Fratiglioni, Senior professor at Karolinska Institute is awarded the Great Gerontology Prize by the Swedish Gerontological Association for her contribution to Aging Research.

Missing Link presentation at the UK Stroke Forum 2022.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital and Cellevate AB, have received almost 5 million SEK from Vinnova, to investigate how stem cells interact with their environment. The goal is to develop more effective production of stem cell therapies, and eventually contribute to better treatment of public diseases such as heart failure and diabetes.

Patients with treatment resistant depression have a 23 per cent higher risk of death than other depressed patients. They also have twice as much outpatient care and spend three times the number of days in inpatient care. These are findings of a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and elsewhere, who conclude that it is important to identify patients at risk of developing treatment resistant depression.   

We congratulate the research group Clinical Physiology at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, where a total of five researchers were granted millions from the Swedish Research Council and the Heart-Lung Foundation 2022.

From January 1st, 2023, KI Housing will become part of Karolinska Institutet instead of being an independent company.

The Cancer and Allergy Fund has awarded a grant of SEK 4.2 million to 23 patient-end projects on cancer and allergies. Of these, fifteen researchers at nine departments at Karolinska Institutet are to share SEK 2.5 million.

In its recent call, the Swedish Research Council has awarded in excess of SEK 19 million for six projects at KI. The project receiving the largest grant aims to study the long-term impact of the pandemic on the lifestyle and health of young adults.

Cluster headache, or Horton’s syndrome, is so painful that it is sometimes referred to as “suicide headache”. Thanks to a donation of SEK 35 million from financier and philanthropist Rune Andersson, research group leader Andrea Carmine Belin will very soon be setting up the world’s first research centre specialising exclusively in cluster headaches.

We congratulate Natalie Glaser and Ulrik Sartipy at the Thoracic Surgery group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, who receive research grants from the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation.

Associate Professor Volker Lauschke at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology (FyFa) receives a Consolidator grant of up to 1.2 million SEK per year over five years.

A new collaborative study from Karolinska Institutet, Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), and Czech Technical University suggests a novel imaging marker of brain connectivity might be a very early indicator of pathological changes in Alzheimer’s disease. This imaging marker could be capable of detecting alterations when formal neuropsychological tests and even standard clinical image-based markers fail.

The nanomaterial graphene oxide—which is used in everything from electronics to sensors for biomolecules—can indirectly affect the immune system via the gut microbiome, as shown in a new study on zebrafish by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The findings are reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Problems with managing anger can have severe consequences for the afflicted individual and their loved ones. A new study from the Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet shows that four weeks of therapy delivered over the internet can help people with anger and aggression. The results have been published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

When Svante Pääbo talked about the importance of Neanderthals, the audience in Aula Medica listened carefully. The Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine explained, among other things, that we carry their genes and that they may have been more sensitive than we think.

Prof. emeritus Rudolf “Rulle” Rigler, an excellent scientist in medical physics and long time member of the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics passed away on October 5, 86 years old.

The autumn semester of 2022 saw a new cohort of students arriving at KI to study the part of the Erasmus Mundus Master’s programme Public Health in Disasters, which is conducted by the Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters. One of the students who came to Stockholm is Bahaa, who is really enjoying his time at KI and in Stockholm.

In this year's announcement of project grants from Radiumhemmets Forskningsfonder, OnkPat received a total of 33 million SEK. 32 researchers were granted funding.

We warmly welcome Professor Marcus Carlsson to the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. Marcus Carlsson was appointed Professor of Clinical Physiology on November 7, 2022 and he combines the professorship with a position as senior consultant at the Department of Clinical Physiology, Karolinska University Hospital. Marcus Carlsson was nominated to KI from the National Institutes of Health, USA, where he led the research group "Clinical Physiology".

Debora Rizzuto, principal researcher and research group leader at the Aging Research Center (ARC), Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Institutet, has received a project grant for a project entitled "SoundMIND – effects of noise on cognition and mental health", from Forte.