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Instead of searching for proteins that the immune system reacts against in a specific autoimmune disease, researchers have taken the opposite approach to find diseases linked to a certain protein. By searching among patients with various skin diseases, they identified a disease linked to autoimmunity against the skin protein TGM1. The strategy, which is presented in the journal PNAS, can facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Anna Kågesten and Karin Båge, Assistant Professor and PhD-student respectively, at the Department of Global Public Health, have co-authored a newly published report for the Expert Group on Aid Studies. The report aims to improve the understanding of norms and values that undermine vs. support sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and to identify gaps and possibilities for Swedish development cooperation to find ways to relate to these norms and values.

Are you an undergraduate student at KI? Are you interested in research? Have you thought about doing a PhD? Then the KI Summer School in Medical Research (KISS) may be of interest to you!

Karin Liljelund was diagnosed with lung cancer. She is now being treated with targeted drugs against the very mutation that causes her cancer, an example of precision medicine.

Can artificial intelligence (AI) overcome the challenges of precision medicine? We asked Magnus Boman, professor at KTH and affiliated to KI, whose research includes looking at how AI can be used in healthcare.

Helena Bergsten, Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) at the Department of Medicine Huddinge, is defending her thesis "Streptococcal and Staphylococcal Tissue Infections: Therapeutic Challenges and Opportunities" on December 17th 2021. Main Supervisor is Professor Anna Norrby-Teglund.

During seven weeks in the summer, undergraduate students at Karolinska Institutet can enrol in Karolinska Institutet’s Summer School in Medical Research which is a research-preparatory school. Previous participant Victor Tollemar and supervisor Rachael Sugars both agree that it is an excellent opportunity to receive insight and get to experience a researcher’s world for a short period.

KI's education is in constant development. The international program offering is now expanding, and two additional master’s programmes have been added to the catalogue. It is The Master's Programme in Translational Physiology and Pharmacology and The Master's Program in Nutrition Science that will start during the autumn of 2022.

A large study by an international team of researchers including from Karolinska Institutet has demonstrated that the frequency of defecation is a heritable trait in humans, and that specific genetic profiles influence bowel habits and predisposition to irritable bowel syndrome. The findings are published in the journal Cell Genomics.

79 KI researchers have received a total of SEK 254,450,000 in grants from the Swedish Cancer Society. In addition, four Fellowship prevention grants were also awarded to researchers at KI. In total, the Swedish Cancer Society distributed SEK 850 million, which is the largest amount ever.

This year's silver medals are awarded to professors Maria Masucci, Christina Opava, Åke Rökaeus and Jan Ygge. The medal is awarded to people who have made particularly excellent efforts to support Karolinska Institutet's operations and is celebrated in connection with the ceremony "Nit och Redlighet".

We are approaching Holidays ans the closing of the books and would like to remind you of some important information regarding finances and HR.

Never before have so many people been displaced by war and poverty. Such change and loss can leave deep psychological scars. A new thesis by Doctor Maria Sundvall at Karolinska Institutet is based on surveys and interviews with asylum seekers and refugees in Sweden about their encounters with the psychiatric and primary care services. The results of her studies can make a significant contribution to the dialogue between migrants, clinics and authorities.

What is precision psychiatry? KI researcher Kristiina Tammimies gives an example. She is a research leader at the KIND competence centre, the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, and studies the role of genetics in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Not just care, but not just research either. No, precision medicine requires healthcare and research to find new ways of interacting. Meet the experts working at the cutting edge of healthcare. Read the first article in an in-depth series about precision medicine from KI's Swedish popular science magazine.

Hi Anja Gebhardt, PhD student at the Division of Nursing. On December 15 you will defend your thesis ”Beyond exhaustion and pain: the intertwinement of health and suffering among women and mothers”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital have developed a new kind of immunotherapy for leukemia. The results of a study published in Nature Biotechnology show that the therapy kills cancer cells from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The researchers now want to conduct a clinical study and also test the method on other types of cancer.

By building up expertise around how pain arises, he hopes to help find a future solution to chronic pain. Professor Patrik Ernfors writes about failures, his work with the Nobel Prizes and why you need to be open-minded to make new discoveries.

Endothelial cell dysfunction is a well-established response to cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking and obesity. A new study from Karolinska Institutet show that an individual’s cardiovascular disease risk was linked to the levels of endothelial proteins found in the blood. The study was recently published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, ATVB Journal.

While investigating the unusual G quadruplex DNA structure (G4), the Simon Elsässer group has developed a more accurate method for mapping these structures in the genome. G4 CUT&Tag revealed numerous G4s in the human and mouse genome that were previously not detected. The study has been published in Nucleic Acid Research. These findings may be used for drug development for cancer therapy and provide an important tool to evaluate drug action and safety.

Kidney function plays an important role in drug safety and effectiveness. As many medications are excreted by the kidneys, patients with reduced kidney function are at a higher risk of toxic drug levels. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been recognized as a leading public health problem worldwide with a global estimated prevalence over 9%.

Having an elevated resting heart rate in old age may be an independent risk factor of dementia, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Since resting heart rate is easy to measure and can be lowered through exercise or medical treatment, the researchers believe that it may help to identify people with higher dementia risk for early intervention.

At the french ambassy, in attendance of colleagues, family and friends senior advisor Marie Chenik was bestowed upon the insignia of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit.

Analysing molecular characteristics and their variation during lifestyle changes, by combining digital tools, classical laboratory tests and new biomolecular measurements, could enable individualised prevention of disease. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland published in the journal Cell Systems. The researchers show what a proactive healthcare model could comprise and how it could help in maintaining good health.

Four of the 27 new Wallenberg Academy Fellows appointed in 2021 will conduct their research at Karolinska Institutet (KI). The five-year grant is financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) Foundation to provide young and talented PIs with long-term research funding in Sweden. This year, two researchers at KI are also awarded an extended grant within the funding programme.

The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is strongly associated with the “bad” LDL cholesterol. A large study by scientists at Karolinska Institutet now shows that two proteins that transport cholesterol particles in the blood provide early and reliable risk information. The researchers advocate introducing new guidelines for detecting cardiac risk and say the results, published in PLOS Medicine, may pave the way for early treatment, which could help lower morbidity and fatality rates.

In January, Karolinska Institutet will become a member of the international news platform The Conversation. This will provide another platform for our researchers to bring their knowledge to the general public. The initiative is part of the Communications and Public Relations Office’s commitment to Strategy 2030 and includes helping researchers to write popular science articles in English. 

Congratulations to all the researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut) who received funding from Cancerfonden 2022-2024. We would also like to highlight their special initiative: Fellowship in cancer research in primary prevention, which was awarded to one of our researchers.

Richelle Duque Björvang, doctoral student at the division for obstetrics and gynecology, has won the European competition "HERStory" which aims to inspire the next generation of young researchers to think big and dare to try different career paths

Amit Kumar and Agneta Nordberg, at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics (Nordberg Translational Molecular Imaging Lab), are awarded a grant of USD 175,000 USD over a four-year period for the project ”Understanding the role of synaptic loss in degenerative proteinopathies”.

Weakening muscles are a natural part of the ageing process, but for some people with a condition called sarcopenia the decline is abnormally fast. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that the early stages of sarcopenia could be counteracted with timely interventions designed to preserve physical and cognitive function and manage chronic conditions. The results are published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.

In a recent study published in the scientific journal EMBO Reports, the Nils-Göran Larsson group has identified responses to acute and chronic impairment of mitochondrial gene expression. These findings can be valuable for future mitochondria-targeted therapy for cancer and other mitochondrial-related disorders. We have talked to postdoctoral researcher and the study’s first author Mara Mennuni about their findings.

KI researcher Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga, Assistant Professor at the Aging Research Center (ARC), has been awarded a project grant for research within primary care from the Swedish Research Council.

Professor Carol Tishelman at the Department of learning, informatics, management and ethics and her research group have been awarded the KI Culture Award 2021 for the research project DöBra.

Last month was the half time seminar of Hang Tran Thi Thanh with the title: Clinical and experimental implementation of standardised hypothermic treatment for neonatal asphyxia in low-income settings.

Naseer Baloch at the research group Colorectal Surgery, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Perineal healing following abdominoperineal excision for rectal and anal cancer" on December 3, 2021. Main Supervisor is Per Nilsson.

On November 24, H.M. Queen Letizia of Spain, H.M. Queen Silvia and H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

On 18 November 2021, the Faculty Board at Karolinska Institutet decided on the allocation of the funding for eight positions as Assistant Professor, eight positions as Senior researcher and eight Consolidator grants for researchers already employed by KI.

Hi Elisabeth Carlsson Farrelly, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS. On December 16 you will defend your thesis ”The Stockholm Spinal Cord Uro Study”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

On 18 November 2021, the Faculty Board decided on the allocation of the funding for eight positions as Assistant Professor, eight positions as Senior researcher and eight Consolidator grants for researchers already employed by KI.

Understanding how the complex geometry of branching tissues take shape during embryonic development or the growth of any organisms has long been a fascinating subject. Neuroscientists at Karolinska Institutet, together with theoretical physicists from IST-Austria, have now combined live imaging in a zebrafish model system with analytical theory to uncover a generic design principle to predict 3D axon branching morphogenesis.

Bacteria from the digestive system seem to have the potential to cause damage to pancreatic cells, increasing the risk of malignant tumours. Now for the first time, live bacteria from cystic pancreatic lesions that are precursors to pancreatic cancer, have been analysed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The study, which is published in Gut Microbes, can lead to prophylactic interventions using local antibiotics.

The Breast Cancer Association's award 2021 goes to chief physician and KI professor Per Hall. He is recognized for his broad research on how breast cancer can be prevented and detected early with refined and individual methods.

Researcher and KI alumnus Ahmadreza Djalali has been awarded the 2021 Courage to Think Award, from Scholars at Risk (SAR).

KI researcher Erika Jonsson Laukka has been granted a project grant from the Swedish Research Council for her research within post-COVID syndrome.

Analysing all the proteins that exist in a tissue type (the so-called proteome) can provide vital information on the causes of diseases and how they can best be treated. We talk to Janne Lehtiö, professor at the Department of Oncology-Pathology, about proteome-based medicine and what it can contribute to personalised cancer therapy.

On November 9, 2021, the Rolf Luft Research Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, Karolinska Institutet, was visited by the Crown Princess Victoria. Ongoing research on diabetes was presented to her and a visit to the laboratory was also included.

The gold complex auranofin has traditionally been used for treating rheumatism but is also being evaluated as a treatment for certain forms of cancer. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show that other molecules that inhibit the same biological system have a more specific effect than auranofin and therefore may have greater potential as cancer therapies. The results have been published in the journal Redox Biology.

A researcher at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, has received USD 200 000 for a project aiming to assess the effect of partial re-programming by the transient expression of the Yamanaka factors to rejuvenate the immune system to extend lifespan and health span.

Her research focuses on hereditary brain diseases and, among other things, cluster headache, an extremely painful disease which comes in attacks. It is not known what causes the disease, and so far, there are no effective treatments.