News archive

Congratulations to Christine Delisle Nyström, who has been appointed Assistant Professor and docent in Nutrition, and to Rongrong Fan, who has been appointed docent in Cell- and Molecular Biology!

On Monday, 2 May, KI-staff Dan Jibréus boarded a plane bound for North Dakota, and then on to Oklahoma. Two separate remains in specially built boxes were packed in the cargo space, which after several years of delay due to the pandemic, would now be returned.

Postdoctoral researcher Rajan Kumar Pandey has been awarded the Crafoord Prize research grant in polyarthritis.

The results of the alumni survey show that a large majority of alumni are satisfied with their education at KI, and would recommend KI to others.

Administrative news for staff and affiliates at the Department of Neuroscience (issue #1/2022).

A new study, published in Science, shows how self-inflicted DNA damage uniquely enables tumor cells to endure the genotoxic effects of radiation therapy, allowing them to survive and contribute to tumor reoccurrence. The findings highlight a cancer-specific survival mechanism that could be targeted and used to enhance the tumor cells’ vulnerability to genotoxic cancer treatments.

The conferment ceremony in Stockholm City Hall on 29 April celebrated Karolinska Institutet’s new doctors of medicine and honorary doctors HRH Prince Daniel, Dr Soumya Swaminathan and Professor Shinhiro Takeda. The ceremony was attended by HRH Crown Princess Victoria, the municipal council chairperson and the Indian and Japanese ambassadors, along with the proud supervisors and families of the new PhDs. The ceremony was infused with the importance of working together towards better health for al

Two of this year’s honorary doctors, HRH Prince Daniel and Soumya Swaminathan, took part in a seminar on sustainable health arranged by Karolinska Institutet on Friday 29 April. The discussions centred around prevention and long-term health.

Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of other illicit drug use as well as of anxiety and depression – at least among those who have used cannabis during the 2000s, according to a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet. The results also show that cannabis-related diagnoses have gradually increased, especially in young adults and more commonly in men with less education, lower incomes and other psychiatric diseases.

A Distinguished Investigator Grant - Endocrinology and Metabolism 2022, from Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Research Leader Program, is awarded to Elisabet Stener- Victorin, professor and researcher at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.
The project title is "Dissecting the molecular, mechanistic and causal pathways of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and how these are passed on across generations".

In a new study published in the journal Hepatology, a research group at Karolinska Institutet shows that people with fatty liver disease are expected to live almost three years shorter than the general population.

A study in rural Malawi underscores the need for better clinical management of severely ill children with very low blood sugar or blood oxygen levels. The study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Parent and Child Health Initiative in Malawi, among others, found high mortality rates for children with either of these symptoms even when they were admitted to a hospital. The findings are published in the journal Bulletin of the World Health Organisation.

At midnight on April 19, the national application for university studies for the autumn semester 2022 closed. At that time, more than 22,000 had applied for Karolinska Institutet's undergraduate programmes. The most popular is the medical program followed by the undergraduate programmes in psychology, dentistry, and nursing.

In May, KI held a seminar on academic freedom and international collaborations. The event explored the question of how research is impacted by a world that is characterized by war, conflict and democratic decline. It is not enough to develop new guidelines; actions need to be based on personal responsibility, says KI President Ole Petter Ottersen.

Currently available therapies to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) lack precision and can lead to serious side effects. Researchers at KI have now developed a method for identifying the immune cells involved in autoimmune diseases, and have identified four new target molecules of potential significance for future personalised treatment of MS. The results, which are published in Science Advances, have been obtained in collaboration with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Region Stockholm.

A study from Karolinska Institutet and the Nordic cancer registries shows that cancer notification rates declined in the Nordic countries during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in April-May 2020 compared to previous years. In the fall of 2020, the cancer rates recovered in Denmark, Norway and Iceland, yet only partly in Sweden and Finland. In the Faroe Islands, the changes in cancer rates were not statistically significant. The study was published in International Journal of Cancer.

Patrik Ernfors has been awarded this year's ERC Advanced Grant, which is one of Europe's most prestigious research funding programmes. This is the third time he receives an ERC AdG.

Are you going to study abroad this autumn? We are looking for new students who will go on an exchange semester during the autumn of 2022 and want to blog for KI about their exchange to inspire more students to do the same.

KI has been approved continued funding from the Swedish Institute (SI) to implement two capacity building training programmes for professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The programmes, which have been running since 2020, will be offered online during 2022 - 2023.

Millions of Ukrainian children have been displaced, either internally or as refugees, by the war with Russia. A systematic review by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Ukraine’s Sumy State University has compiled the scientific literature on children’s health in Ukraine. The study, which is published in the journal Acta Paediatrica, could prove useful for clinicians treating refugee children from Ukraine.

Primary cilia are signaling structures projecting off cell surfaces like antennae. In humans, many different cell types are ciliated. The molecular underpinnings of making and maintaining ciliary identities and functional specializations often are crucial for cell functionality. Recently, researchers have found how the main ciliogenic transcription factor protein controlling overall cilia biology can switch to control ciliary specializations and thereby alters cell behavioral output.

Children with migration backgrounds in Sweden are less likely than other children to receive recommended treatment for psychiatric diagnoses such as ADHD and depression, a paper from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences reports.

On April 21, H.M Queen Silvia visited Karolinska Institutet to participate in a conference focusing on research on Alzheimer's disease, dementia and aging.

Many of society’s challenges, such as the climate issue, are too complex to be solved singlehandedly by different actors. Partnership and collaboration are necessary if the work of reaching the global goals is to be accelerated – and here academia plays an important part. This is the view of representatives of the Stockholm Trio, ahead of their May seminar showcasing how they mobilise to improve the health of people and the planet.

Almost 500 employees gathered in Aula Medica on 1 April when Karolinska Comprehensive Cancer Centre (Karolinska CCC) celebrated its second anniversary since accreditation by honouring its employees and the collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

When the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency – MSB called Jason Murphy and asked if he could go to the Polish-Ukrainian border as part of Sweden’s support to the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM Ukraine), he accepted quickly. For over ten years he has combined academic research and teaching, clinical work and international missions, and he firmly believes that they complement and enrich each other.

Residential exposure to ambient air pollutants is linked to an elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, an observational study of young adults in Stockholm, Sweden shows. The study was conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and is published in JAMA Network Open.

We are looking for students to work at the welcome ceremony for new students starting fall semester of 2022. The ceremony is on August 25 in Aula Medica. And yes, since the ceremony is in August you will have to be a student at KI also next semester. There are two different types of jobs available, read more about them below.

In a new thesis, Rickard Strandberg, PhD student at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, lays the foundations for a new natural history model for breast cancer. By taking advantage of available detailed screening cohorts, Rickard’s work includes three diverse applications of this model.

Emil Pieniowski at the research group Colorectal Surgery, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Aspects of low anterior resection syndrome : prevalence, risk factors and treatment" on April 22, 2022. Main Supervisor is Mirna Abraham Nordling.

Six people, members of staff or affiliated, from KI went to Moldova on short notice to support the healthcare system there by conducting mass casualty exercises and training in triage and treatment of war wounds. The work was done through KI’s Centre for Health Crises, on a request from the WHO.

By analysing samples from patients who have been treated for malaria in Sweden, researchers at Karolinska Institutet can now describe how the immune system acts to protect the body after a malaria infection. The results, published in the journal Cell Reports, provide knowledge that can aid in the development of more effective vaccines against the disease.

Susanne Fridsten at the research group Diagnostic Radiology, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend her thesis "Carcinoma of the uterine cervix: aspects on preoperative staging and assessment of treatment effect using magnetic resonance imaging" on April 21, 2022. Main Supervisor is Lennart Blomqvist.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified key signalling pathways that when blocked by existing drug candidates limit reproduction of the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus. The findings, published in the journal eLife, offer hope for patients affected by this potentially deadly disease.

A research group at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has analysed how certain immune cells known as innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) develop into mature cells that play a part in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The findings could pave the way for more effective treatments against IBD, a disease that causes considerable suffering and that is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer. The results are published today in the journal Science Immunology.

A large database is being built in China aiming to study brain aging and explore effective approaches for prevention of dementia. A study published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions (TRCI) provides detailed description on the database as well as characteristics and health conditions of the study population. The database is called MIND-China--multimodal interventions to delay dementia and disability in rural China.

The Centre for Health Crises at Karolinska Institutet is now a member of the WHO’s network GOARN – Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Via the network, the Centre for Health Crises can contribute with staff and resources to health emergencies and crises around the world.

The organisation Climate Students recently published the report Climate Action Ranking, where they rank Sweden's higher education institutions according to their climate work. In this year’s report, KI came in third place.

Allan Bakesiga and Linda Atulinda are medical students at Makerere University in Uganda. They are currently doing an exchange at Karolinska Institutet through a collaboration between the two universities. It is one of the most comprehensive international collaborations at KI which has enabled students, researchers, and professors to do exchanges both ways for many years.

Katja Petzold has been awarded the Hugo Theorell Prize in biophysics 2022. The focus in her lab is to study structural changes in RNA – e.g. the RNA in the ribosome – and to develop methods for this purpose.

A researcher at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, has received the SSMF (Svenska Sällskapet för medicinsk forskning) postdoctoral grant of SEK 3 million for three years, for a project on "Anti-senescence Immunotherapy for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis”.

Virtual lab training can cater for different types of learning abilities among students and offer a variety of techniques that might not be possible to teach/learn during an on-campus course. Karolinska Institutet, through the Biomedicine programmes, is coordinating the virtual laboratory training module in a new Erasmus+ project focusing on virtual/online practical training.

Mara Mennuni has been awarded a grant from the Alex and Eva Wallström foundation.

Scientists have analysed DNA from more than 300,000 people with and without the psychiatric disorder in the largest genetic study of schizophrenia to date and have identified a great number of specific genes that could play important roles in the psychiatric disorder. A companion paper published in parallel strengthens these findings by pointing to a similar genetic and biological basis for this disorder. Both studies are published today in the leading international journal Nature.

KI’s ultra modern education and research in the field of dentistry/dental care has topped the QS World University Rankings for the third time. We meet Bodil Lund, head of the Department of Dental Medicine, to hear her views on being no 1 on the world’s most important ranking list.

A review of scientific literature investigating the impact of economic crises on suicide has been carried out through a project funded by Region Stockholm. Most of the included studies show a risk of an increase in suicide during and after economic crises. At the same time, the results from a couple of studies indicate that countries that have invested more in welfare, for example the Scandinavian countries, seem to have fared better compared with countries that have invested less in welfare.

A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet identify major sex differences in the timing of X chromosome upregulation, a finding that is vital for understanding central gene-regulatory processes in early fetal development. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Birgitta Henriques Normark has been elected new President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. She will succeed the present President, Dan Larhammar, on July 1st.

A recent study published in Indoor Air by Antonio Rothfuchs et al, is the first to demonstrate active SARS-CoV-2 in air. Infectious SARS-CoV-2 was recovered from the air in rooms occupied by COVID-19 patients. This result strongly supports the aerosol route of transmission for SARS-CoV-2 and urges the revision of infection control frameworks for COVID-19 to include airborne transmission.

Karolinska Institutet recently held its “Global Masters Scholarship Ceremony” in honor of the non-European Master’s students who receive a scholarship based on academic merit.