News archive

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.

Here is a reminder of actions that we all should think about and act on.

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.

On Friday 17 June, the restaurants Nanna Svartz and Svarta Räfven in Aula Medica, Campus Solna will be closed due to illness in the staff. Café Erik Jorpes in Aula Medica and the cafe in Biomedicum will remain open as usual.

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.

Scheduled maintenance work for IDAC on June 16, between 15:00 and 22:00 will take place.
During this day, it will be possible to search for employees / students and use the "Reset password" service in the IDAC portal. Please, we do not ask you to use the remaining services in the IDAC portal between 15:00 and 22:00.

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.

Due to staff activities all the library services are closed June 20-21.

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.  

Due to planned system maintenance, the bibliometrics system will not be available 10:00 - 11:00 on Wednesday 15 June. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

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.

New findings reveal an advanced, unexpected two-way communication between the function and organization of chromosomes in the cell nucleus. Previous research shows that the organization of chromosomal DNA into loops regulates gene reading (transcription) and chromosome copying (replication). The new results show that, in turn, transcription and replication control chromosome looping, thus revealing a new interplay known to be important in avoiding diseases, such as cancer.

Measuring the full complement of small molecules (the metabolome) can provide important insight into the health status of an individual. The measurement of metabolites is also the main theme of the recently established KI core facility for small molecule mass spectrometry (KI-SMMS). We talk with Craig Wheelock, Head of the newly founded Unit of Integrative Metabolomics in the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IMM), about the role of metabolomics in personalized health care.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden might have found an explanation for why people with self-injury behaviour generally feel less pain than others. The key seems to be a more effective pain-modulation system, a discovery that can benefit people seeking help for their self-harm. The findings are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

End-stage liver disease (ESLD), including advanced liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer, is the final stage of long-standing injury to the liver due to risk factors such as chronic viral hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease. There is a high disease burden and mortality globally, especially in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries such as Ghana, where the primary cause of HCC and cirrhosis is infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Christina Opava, professor emerita at the Division of Physiotherapy is awarded the EULAR Health Professionals in Rheumatology Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for her work within rheumatology.

Using advanced microscopy techniques, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University have visualized in unprecedented detail the machinery that the cells’ powerhouses, the mitochondria, use to form their proteins. The results, which are published in Nature, raise hopes of more specific antibiotics and new cancer drugs in the future.

IMM Unit of Occupational Medicine has been awarded a European grant to investigate the work environment of gig-workers (GIG-OSH). In total KI and it’s partners have been awarded 1,65 MEUR over three years.

The project was presented at the conference in Lyon, in May 2022.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a tiny sensor for detecting pesticides on fruit in just a few minutes. The technique, described as a proof-of-concept in a paper in the journal Advanced Science, uses flame-sprayed nanoparticles made from silver to increase the signal of chemicals. While still at an early stage, the researchers hope these nano-sensors could help uncover food pesticides before consumption.

The majority of cold wave related deaths occurred in middle-income countries followed by high-income countries, deaths were likely to occur during heat waves than cold waves or severe winter weather, in particularly in high-income countries and increased CO2 emissions can result in an increased number of deaths during severe weather events. That is the conclusion of a recently published study that looked at extreme weather events and deaths in the years 1999 to 2018.

The repurposing of FDA-approved drugs for alternative diseases is a faster way of bringing new treatments into the clinic. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have repurposed a cancer drug for treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis. A novel drug carrier was also developed to facilitate drug delivery to target myeloid cells. These pre-clinical findings are described in a paper in the journal EMBO Reports.

A new study published in Cell shows that a non-coding RNA molecule regulates mitochondrial gene expression in human cells. The work results from a collaboration between the Sahlgrenska Academy, Karolinska Institutet and the University of Cologne.

Mechanisms associated with a particular diabetes drug can also help to protect against Alzheimer’s disease, a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in Neurology reports. The results indicate that the drug’s target protein can be an interesting candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

In a collaboration between researchers from AstraZeneca and Karolinska Institutet a study about potential new treatments for heart failure is now published in Nature Communications.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet are introducing a new gold standard quality-control tool for counting of mRNA molecules in single cell sequencing. The new method is described in a new publication in the journal Nature Methods.