News archive

The Swedish Media Council (Statens medieråd) in collaboration with NASP has produced a research review about suicide, internet-based communication about suicide and how suicidal individuals can be identified online.

In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet show that the activation of specific cell surface proteins – cortisol, oestrogen and vitamin A – in mice with human neuroblastoma cells results in the neuronal differentiation of cancer cells which leads to reduced mortality. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research, could, in the future, lead to a more gentle and effective treatment of this severe form of cancer in children.

Patients who have indwelling urinary catheters often suffer from urinary tract infections, which can be difficult to treat. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that the synthetic peptide CD4-PP has a good bactericidal effect against urinary tract bacteria, even those resistant to antibiotics. The study, published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, opens up for new possible treatment methods.

In a study recently published in Cell Reports Methods, co- authors Björn Önfelt, Niklas Sandström and Valentina Carannante, researchers at SciLifeLab and the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet, describes a new miniaturized method for high-content screening combined with high-resolution imaging, all in the same microchip.

Professor Stefan Swartling Peterson at the Department of Global Public Health has been elected to the Swedish Crown Princess Couple's Foundation's expert council for the years 2022-2025.

Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) treated with the drug rituximab had a significantly lower risk of relapse compared with MS patients receiving standard treatment. This has been shown in a phase 3 clinical trial by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital in Sweden published in The Lancet Neurology. Rituximab is not approved as an MS drug, but has proven to be effective in smaller studies and is therefore largely prescribed “off label”.

Karolinska Institutet’s Silver Medal for 2018 is awarded to Fredrik Brolund and Lotta Widén Holmquist. The medals are awarded to those who have made a special contribution to supporting KI’s activities.

A study from Karolinska Institutet, among others, presents the theory that egg-sperm fusion, a crucial feature of sexual reproduction in plants and animals, may have originated from an ancient form of genetic exchange that involved the fusion of bacteria-like microorganisms called archaea. The results, published in Nature Communications, may open an entirely new perspective on the evolution of sex.

The Swedish Military Conscription Register contains data on some 2 million individuals. Conscripts underwent extensive testing, data that can be used in epidemiological research. Now researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and Lund University publish a review about the register in the European Journal of Epidemiology.

Distinct neuron types in the auditory organ are necessary for encoding different features of sound and relaying them to the brain. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet provide evidence of an early, neuronal activity-independent, emergence of the different subtypes of auditory neurons, prior to birth in mice. The findings have recently been published in Nature Communications.

The clinical outcome and severity of COVID-19 cannot be explained by a single factor like age, gender, or comorbidities. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has identified potential determinants of COVID-19 severity at the cellular level using advanced systems biology analysis. The findings, published in the journal Cell Systems, offer insights into the metabolic tug-of-war in the human body and its association with disease severity.

For a drug to be effective and not harmful it needs to be administered at the right dosage. Certain enzymes in the body eliminate drugs, and the activity of these enzymes vary between individuals. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have studied two enzymatic variants which eliminate drugs less efficiently and show that the these enzyme variants are inherited from Neandertals.

The Board of Sven and Ebba-Christina Hagberg's foundation has decided to award Elizabeth Arkema and Marcus Buggert the foundations personal prize and a research grant, for a total of SEK 470,000 each. The prize will be awarded at the annual Installation Ceremony at the Karolinska Institutet in October 2021.

Jiayao Lei is awarded The Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize 2020. The Prize (USD 5.000) is meant to reward pre-graduate scientific contributions within the doctoral education. She will receive the prize at the Installation Ceremony on October 15, 2020.

Associate Professor Tobias Nordström is awarded the European Association of Urology (EAU) "Prostate Cancer Research Award 2022" for the Stockholm3-test, a blood test that in a better way can identify men who have an increased risk for prostate cancer.

In precision medicine, predicting the risk of an event during a specific period may help, for example, to identify patients that need early preventive treatment. Modern machine learning (ML) techniques are therefore ideal for building these predictions.

We congratulate these researchers at MedH and Campus Flemingsberg who are the recipients of the CIMED project grants 2023-2025.

Congratulations to the researchers at BioNut who received funding from CIMED for 2023-2025.

Centre for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics arranges a networking event for researchers within bioinformatics and biostatistics Friday October 7th from 12 pm to 6 pm. The event takes place right after the conference Collaboration in Science 2022 and will be held in Neo building at Campus Flemingsberg. Register before September 9th!

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have linked resistance to treatment for a deadly form of kidney cancer to low mitochondrial content in the cell. When the researchers increased the mitochondrial content with an inhibitor, the cancer cells responded to the treatment. Their findings, which are published in Nature Metabolism, offer hope for more targeted cancer drugs.

Infants who were given a taste of peanut, milk, wheat and egg from the age of three months had a lower risk of developing a food allergy at the age of three years than controls, reports a study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Oslo in Norway published in The Lancet.

On May 18, Dan Jibréus, who travelled to North America on behalf of the KI to return the remains of two persons, returned to Sweden. He describes the trip as very successful, and the two remains, from the Arikara and Miami peoples respectively, have now been returned to their places of origin.

Roberta Filograna has been awarded a grant from the Loo and Hans Osterman Foundation.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab describe in a study published in Science how they have improved the ability of a protein to repair oxidative DNA damage and created a new protein function. Their innovative technique can lead to improved drugs for diseases involving oxidative stress, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and lung diseases, but the researchers believe it has even greater potential.

This year’s Grand Silver Medals are awarded to Jan Andersson, Stefan Einhorn and Ingrid Lundberg. The medal recognises excellence in support of Karolinska Institutet and is awarded during the installation ceremony in Aula Medica on October 13.

Science photographer Martin Oeggerli is the recipient of the 2022 Lennart Nilsson Award for his ability to illuminate science.

EU's new Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) is a 7-year partnership, aimed at reducing exposure to hazardous chemicals and their effects on human health and the environment.

On 18-20 May 18 2022 we were excited to finally host the annual StratNeuro retreat at Runö in Åkersberga. This year's retreat was somewhat special. Many were eager to meet again, and the organisers worked hard to make this meeting a productive and memorable one.

Patients with low socioeconomic status who have undergone mechanical aortic valve replacement, AVR, have a higher risk of bleeding complications, such as fatal intracranial hemorrhage, shows a study done by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The study is now published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, JACC.

Severe acute COVID-19 is very rare in children, but SARS-CoV-2 infection can trigger a novel post infectious condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). MIS-C is a potentially serious condition, and so far, little has been known on risk factors for developing MIS-C.

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, SSF, has appointed the eight generation of "Future research leader", three researchers from Karolinska Institutet. The researchers receive 15 million SEK each during a five year period and will join a leadership training program.

In March 2022, André Thunberg had his ISP seminar at the Department of Global Public Health. His research focuses on the prevalence and management of severe paediatric illness in Malawi. Besides his doctoral studies, André also works at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital as a resident doctor.

Infants living at addresses in Stockholm with elevated levels of air pollution have impaired lung function already at six months of age.  Earlier research has shown that exposure to air pollution during infancy negatively affects lung function in children, adolescents and young adults, but this study is the first to show similar associations already in infants.  The results indicate that further measures are needed to reduce the levels of air pollution in urban areas.

As in previous years, several of Stockholm's academic institutions are joining together with a united theme during Pride week to draw attention to LGBTQI issues. Academic Pride 2022 is organising a seminar on LGBTQI-inclusive work and study environments and joint participation in the Pride Parade. The Pride flag will also be flown at all participating universities throughout the week of this festive week.

Several co-workers from ARC attended the 26th Nordic Congress of Gerontology (26NKG), which took place on 8-10 June in Odense, Denmark. The theme for this year's congress was "Change& Continuity", and ARC contributed with 12 presentations, 7 posters, and with The National E-infrastructure for Aging Research (NEAR) as a sponsor.

In 2022, nine candidates successfully defended their thesis and passed the examination.

People with at least two of the diseases type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke have double the risk of developing dementia. Prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease could therefore be a strategy for reducing dementia risk, a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia suggests.

Hi Tingting Xu, PhD student at the division of neurogeriatrics, NVS. On June 20 you will defend your thesis ”Neural stem cell therapy and inflammation status of post-traumatic syringomyelia”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

StratNeuro aims to fund junior researchers to strengthen groundbreaking research in the field of neuroscience. In the 2022 call for StratNeuro postdoctoral funding, we received 30 proposal from 9 KI departments.

Anna-Mia Ekström has been involved with the Centre for Health Crises since the very beginning and is now a part of its first steering group. Before the Centre was formed, she was a member of KI’s interdisciplinary resource team post COVID-19 (KIRP), and the task force that helped shape the centre. Just like with her many other engagements her aim is to make a difference, especially for the most vulnerable.

Patient-initiated brief admission as a complement to outpatient psychiatric care is appreciated by nurses and patients, and can reduce levels of anxiety in people with emotional instability and self-harm, a new thesis from Karolinska Institutet reports.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital have followed participants who have received three doses of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and compared their immune responses after Omicron infection. The results, which are published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, show that Omicron infection elicits significantly higher antibody responses in individuals without prior COVID-19 infection as compared to previously infected individuals.

On 7 and 8 June 2022, researchers from all over Europe, Israel, the United States and Canada gathered at Karolinska Institutet to discuss the research and latest developments in the I-CARE4OLD project, an EU-funded project launched in 2021.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show how a molecule that they have identified stimulates the formation of new insulin-producing cells in zebrafish and mammalian tissue, through a newly described mechanism for regulating protein synthesis. The results are published in Nature Chemical Biology.

A study from Karolinska Institutet sheds new light on the question of whether the sex and previous pregnancy of blood donors affects survival in patients who receive red blood cell transfusions. According to the study, which is published in JAMA Internal Medicine, neither of these factors has such an effect, after accounting for the lower haemoglobin levels in blood from women.

In the spring of 2022, the network Senior Faculty at KI conducted a survey on the activities of KI professors born in or before 1953. The results show that the professors are still heavily engaged in research and bring close to SEK 300 million a year into the university.  

Antibiotic resistance is sometimes referred to as the silent pandemic – a contagion that spreads without us really knowing its extent or severity. But research is in progress to find new ways of fighting bacteria. And as with COVID-19, everyone can help to reduce the spread – and save lives.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics are overused in dentistry because many patients mistakenly believe they have a penicillin allergy. But such allergies are rare and should be investigated by a doctor, says Bodil Lund, chair of the Tandvårds-Strama network, which supports rational antibiotic therapy in dentistry.

KI alumni Malin Grape has been appointed by the government as AMR ambassador. But what does that mean?

Pernilla Rönnholm lost her daughter because of antibiotic resistant intestinal bacteria. Now she works for preventing more children to being affected.