News archive

After severe heart failure, the ability of the heart to heal by forming new cells is very low. However, after receiving treatment with a supportive heart pump, the capacity of a damaged heart to repair itself with new muscle cells becomes significantly higher, even higher than in a healthy heart. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Circulation.

Tobias Kammann from the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) at the Departmet of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending his thesis titled "The diversity of MAIT cells across the human body and in COVID-19", on 29 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Johan Sandberg (MedH).

We would like to inform you that the salary payment date for December 2024 has been moved forward to December 18.

The Infrastructure Board at Karolinska Institutet (KI) has decided to fund nearly 30 of KI's core facilities with up to SEK 117 million for the period 2025-2028.

Hi Marko Bogdanovic, doctoral student at the Vascular Surgery research group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery.

You will defend your thesis "Strategies to predict patient-specific outcomes after endovascular aneurysm repair" on December 5, 2024 . What is the main focus of the thesis?

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found a molecule that can both help the intestines to heal after damage and suppress tumour growth in colorectal cancer. The discovery could lead to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cancer. The results are published in the journal Nature.

Business magnate and honorary doctor at Karolinska Institutet Fredrik Lundberg is donating SEK 25 million for a continued investment in cardiovascular research. This is the fifth large donation made since 2007 by Lundberg, whose engagement has enabled research that has greatly improved therapeutic and surgical methods for cardiovascular diseases.

Vice-president Martin Bergö, University Director Veronika Sundström and I want to meet you in our open dialogue meetings in December. These meetings are important sources of perspective, knowledge and insight concerning pressing issues facing KI, such as how we can work even better together as a university and equip ourselves for a constantly changing world.

The FyFa faculty gathered on 18 November for a workshop to start the journey towards “Establishing a FyFa faculty with a shared vision and framework for a sustainable and excellent teaching organisation that fosters collaboration, competence, and world-class education” – FyFa’s strategical goal for the teaching organisation.

In a new study published in the European Heart Journal, researchers at Karolinska Institutet show that genetic traits influence the cellular composition of atherosclerotic plaques, which over time will affect the risk of such lesions to cause a stroke or heart attack. The new knowledge can be used to improve the risk assessment and treatment of patients with atherosclerosis in the future.

People with a genetic predisposition to dementia can reduce their risk by up to 35 percent by increasing their fitness, according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. High levels of fitness are also linked to better cognitive ability, according to the study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet.

During the month of December, food waste management will be introduced in all of KI's buildings. When the food waste is sorted out from other waste, it can be recovered and used as, for example, biogas and biofertilizers. It reduces the burden on the environment and contributes to sustainable development. This has been mandatory for all households and businesses in Sweden since 1 January 2024.

Aortic aneurysm involves a risk of the large body artery rupturing, which is directly life-threatening. Hanna Björck, docent at Karolinska Institutet, has now been awarded Prince Daniel's grant for promising young researchers of SEK 6 million to develop future individual treatments.

Åsa Olsson, PhD student at NVS, is awarded the The Swedish Society of Nursing Doctoral Scholarship 2024. Her PhD project contributes significant knowledge about conversations regarding end-of-life care for the elderly.

After discussion in both the ANA Futura Drafting- and Steering Committee, the service team has purchased new porcelain for the coffee nodes in the extension/office building.

Common cardiovascular drugs are linked to a lower risk of dementia in older age, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

On 27 November, the Centre for Health Crises will host Sweden's first Health Crises Forum. The aim is to bring people together to discuss what universities can contribute with to support the surrounding society before, during and after a health crisis, and how they best collaborate with other actors.

Due to rising rental costs from our landlords, the rents will increase by 2% starting January 1, 2024.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated how well different AI models can predict the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer by analysing certain immune cells inside the tumour. The study, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, is an important step towards using AI in cancer care to improve patient health.

We congratulate the eleven researchers at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2025-2027. Together, the CMB researchers are awarded grants of over SEK 40 million.

In an era marked by extensive migration and uncertain living conditions for refugees and migrants, the mental health of these groups has become an increasingly urgent issue. Despite the growing needs, many do not receive the care they require. To address these challenges, a network for transcultural suicidology was launched last year. Meet Maria Sundvall, one of the initiators, who shares more about the network.

Congratulations to Marie Löf at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, who has been awarded a grant from FORTE.

Marie Löf is awarded a project grant of SEK 4 995 000 for the project "En digital, samskapad intervention tillgänglig på olika språk för att förebygga graviditetsdiabetes (Di-Prev): en randomiserad kontrollerad studie".

Helena Alpkvist from the Infectious Diseases and Dermatology Unit at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, is defending her thesis titled "Damage-associated molecular patterns and pathogen-associated molecular patterns in severe bacterial infections", on 22 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Kristoffer Strålin (MedH).

Ten researchers at the Department of Neuroscience were collectively awarded over 48.7 Million Swedish Kronor when the Swedish Research Council made decisions on calls within Medicine and Health as well as Humanities and Social Sciences for 2024.

The University of Toronto invites doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows at KI to apply to the summer course “Summer in Design” given by “Medicine in Design” given the 2-11th of June 2025.

Children whose mothers have taken antiseizure drugs during pregnancy are more likely than others to receive a neuropsychiatric diagnosis. This is according to a comprehensive study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and elsewhere, published in Nature Communications. However, the researchers emphasise that the absolute risk is low.

Tips from KI Grants Office about current calls.

The Olle Söder Award and Research Scholarships was presented at a Ceremony at Karolinska University Hospital.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has published this year's 100 list of the most promising research projects from Sweden's colleges and universities. All applications to the list have been reviewed by IVA's expert group and the selected projects are considered to have great potential to benefit society. The list includes several projects involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Mehdi Astaraki, a specialist in artificial intelligence (AI) for medical imaging, has achieved remarkable success in the MICCAI BraTS Challenges. He secured first place in the Pediatric Brain Tumor Segmentation and second place in the Meningioma RT Segmentation categories.

The Swedish Brain Foundation has awarded its grants. NVS received five research grants and one scholarship.

The Swedish Research Council has awarded grants in areas such as medicine and health to 121 researchers at KI. In total, KI is allocated SEK 682,507,429 for the period 2024-2030.

The Committee for Research at Karolinska Institutet has decided on recipients from the Jonas Söderquist scholarship foundation for basic research in virology and immunology. The awarded are Benjamin Nilsson Payant at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology and Egle Kvedaraite at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics.

For three days 1 300 EMTs, researchers, health professionals, country delegates and others representing 130 countries gathered in Abu Dhabi for the World Health Organization’s Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) Global Meeting 2024. Members of the research group Global Disaster Medicine – Health Needs and Response, at the Department of Global Public Health at KI, attended the meeting and presented their work to build the EMT global network.

When the prestigious World Laureates Association (WLA) gathered members and invited guests for a conference in Shanghai in October, Robert Harris and other leading KI researchers were on hand to lecture on current research in life science and develop KI's international network of contacts. Among the participants were Joakim Franck, David Gross and nine other Nobel laureates.

The Athena Prize 2024 is awarded to Care to Translate, a digital translation tool adapted for healthcare. The tool was developed to give patients with different language backgrounds the opportunity to communicate with healthcare providers in an efficient way. The purpose of the Athena prize is to draw attention to and reward research and innovations that have taken place in collaboration between academia, healthcare and industry.

While Karolinska Institutet has solid outreach procedures, there are several areas that could do with improvement, according to a report by the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) on Swedish universities and university colleges that was presented to the government on October 31.

Elisabet Stener-Victorin has received the Ricardo Azziz Distinguished Researcher Award from the Androgen Excess and PCO Society.

Karolinska Institutet has appointed an advisor to President Annika Östman Wernerson for co-operation with the healthcare sector. On 1 December, Maria Eriksdotter, professor at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, will take up this position.

‘By making this change journey together, we can build a stronger future for FyFa and ensure that physiology and pharmacology remain central subjects in education and research at KI - and in the world' says Head of Department Sophie Erhardt.

Dr Isabell Brikell has been awarded the Kathy Sylva ‘Rising Star’ Award 2024 from ACAMH - The Association for Child and Adolescent Health.

A big congratulations to Caroline Graff, Wim Grooten, and Malin Nygren-Bonnier for this!

Congratulations to Anna Marseglia, Adrián Carballo Casla, and Minjia Mo, who will share 12.5 million SEK from Forte.

Congratulations to six researchers at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery who receives research grant from the Swedish Cancer Society in their latest call.

Jonna Bister from the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending her thesis titled "Exploring Human Uterine Immune Cell Dynamics with a Focus on Natural Killer cells and MAIT cells", on 15 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Niklas Björkström (MedH).

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, scientists at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with Michigan State University, have introduced an innovative approach to improve plasma proteome profiling. The method enables the detection of low-abundance proteins in plasma.

Congratulations to Linda Björkhem-Bergman and Erland Axelsson for their respective research grants!

Researchers at the Department of Cell and Molacular Biology, Karolinska Institutet have made a major discovery in how human cells produce energy. Their study, published in the EMBO Journal, reveals the detailed mechanisms of how mitochondria process transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, which are essential for energy production.

The Swedish government has presented an updated strategy for life science with the aim of making Sweden a leading nation in the field. Annika Östman Wernerson, President of KI, has been a member of the advisory group behind the strategy.

We congratulate the eight researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2025-2029. Together, the MedH researchers are awarded grants of nearly SEK 30 million.