News archive

The COP26 agreement keeps the 1.5C goal alive and for the first time mentions the role of fossil fuels. The climate transition is about the future of humankind, but medical researchers say it can also have immediate health benefits here and now.

The experience of the rapid transition to distance learning during the pandemic has been evaluated in a new report. Here are opinions from both teachers and students which will now be used to further develop teaching methods.

On 31 October, the 13-day UN climate summit COP26 began with the aim of accelerating measures to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Climate Convention. Shervin Shahnavaz, member of the climate network at KI, has in recent weeks focused intensely on climate issues as a result of the meeting.

Four researchers at the Aging Research Center (ARC) have been granted project grants from the Swedish Research Council. Marc Guitart-Masip, Davide Liborio Vetrano and Weili Xu are awarded funding for projects in the field of Medicine and Health category, and Grégoria Kalpouzos for a project in the field of humanities and social sciences.

There is a correlation between the ability to understand complex syntax and the fine-motor skills required for manipulating tools. In a new study published in the journal Science, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the French research institute Inserm show that the same cluster of neurons in the brain are involved in both skills. The study also shows that training with a tool improves language skills and vice versa.

This year's Skillbridge Student Case Challenge was decided in early October and in the winning team, Team Delta, was KI student Ala Abdallah.

Hello Gonçalo Castelo Branco, newly appointed Professor of Glial Cell Biology at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics. Tell us, what is your research all about?

Pancreatic cancer forms in the cells of the pancreas, an organ in the abdomen that releases enzymes that aid digestion and produces hormones that help manage our blood sugar levels. Pancreatic cancer is a rare disease with poor survival – it causes some 466 000 deaths internationally per year. The number of cases is increasing and the prognosis is that this disease will become the 8th most common cause of cancer deaths by 2040.

“I really want my research to contribute to low and middle income countries”, Susanne Guidetti said when giving her professor lecture on October 22.

Maria Kowalski-Jahn and Hannes Schihada, two postdocs in the Schulte laboratory, have used a novel technology of fluorescently labelling receptors with a minimally invasive technique and detecting structural rearrangements in a receptor molecule in living cells. These experiments pinpointed how FZDs respond to WNT stimulation by conformational changes in the extracellular domain of the receptor.

Congratulations!
Five researchers active at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, have received grants from the Swedish Research Council.

The current pandemic shows how quickly health misinformation can spread. However, there are tools to debunk misinformation as demonstrated by a new study on health communication strategies from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal BMJ Global Health. The study, which focuses on misinformation about typhoid in Sierra Leone, also shows that explicitly addressing falsehoods seems more effective in busting misbeliefs than simply stating scientific facts.

One of three finalists, Ulrica Nilsson, professor of nursing at NVS, wins the prize for RAPP – an app for digital integrated people-centered care.

Stina Nordinge och Caroline Lager have been named Occupational Therapy Students of the Year by the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists. They have shown that new digital technology using virtual reality does not have to be complicated. By removing the concept of time and space, it is possible to focus on the part of the individual that is well and strengthen that part.

Seven researchers at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics have been granted project funds from the Swedish Research Council. Together the department receives SEK 33.1 million.

Professors Lars Farde and Kjell Fuxe are awarded the Arvid Carlsson Foundation's Major Prize for Outstanding Research in the Spirit of Arvid Carlsson. The prizes consist of diplomas and research grants amounting to SEK 700,000.

Altered function of the red blood cells leads to vascular damage in type 2 diabetes. Results from a new study in cells from patients with type 2 diabetes and mice show that this effect is caused by low levels of an important molecule in the red blood cells. The study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has been published in the journal Diabetes.

The death of a child is an extremely stressful life event with potential long-term health consequences. The death of an offspring is associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart diseases in parents. This is according to a study at Karolinska Institutet, published in PLOS Medicine.

Congratulations to the researchers at the Department of Medicine in Huddinge who received funds of nearly 40MSEK from The Swedish Research Council (VR) 2021-2026.

Following a thorough investigation and the collation of an internal survey, the president of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Professor Ole Petter Ottersen, has today decided to change the names of one of the university’s halls, propose name changes for one building and two roads on Campus Solna, and amend the naming principles.

Konstantinos Meletis, Professor in the Department of Neuroscience, has been awarded a grant of approximately 1.73 million US dollars for three years from the Aligning Sciences Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, NPC, is a rare tumor of the head and neck, which originates in the nasopharynx at the very back of the nose. NPC has a particularly high incidence in southern China, Southeast Asia, and North and East Africa and is rare in the rest of the world. Little is known about its etiology but it is believed that genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are involved.

Congratulations to the nine researchers at NVS who received funds from Swedish Research Council.

Congratulations to five researchers at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery who received funding from the Swedish Research Council within the field Medicine and Health at the dividend on October 28, 2021.

On Thursday the 28th of October the Swedish Research Council announced this year's grant decision in the fields of medicine and health. The total amount of grants awarded is SEK 1,1 billion and KI's researchers are awarded SEK 500 900 000.

Seventy researchers at Karolinska Institutet received KID-funding in the 2021 call and eight of them are active researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, something that the Head of the Department sees as a much appreciated verification of the high quality of both the established and the new researchers at the department.

Kristina Haugaa is the new Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Medicine in Huddinge, since October 11. "I'm eager and thrilled to conduct cardiology research at Karolinska Institutet".

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet report that a recently discovered inflammatory mediator, interleukin-26, appears to have an important role in pneumonia and contribute to the killing of bacteria. The study is published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Immunology - Microbial Immunology.

The 2021 Melvin R. Goodes Prize was awarded to Professor Kivipelto, who received the prize at the ADDF Annual Fall Symposium on Thursday, October 28th.

There is a global trend of population aging and Xia Li has studied the phenomena from a molecular epidemiological point of view, with a focus on biological aging. As the number of elderly increases worldwide, there is a need for better data on assessment and prediction of aging risks independent of chronological age. This kind of data is needed together with genetic assessments in order to allow the use of precision medicine.

The Swedish Research Council and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has decided on the applications of individualised diagnostics and prevention to be awarded grants within the call Project grant for cross-disciplinary collaboration between China and Sweden. All projects are contucted at KI and by KI researchers.

Per Svenningsson has been awarded a grant of approximately 1.86 million US dollar for three years, from the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative for an ambitious, multidisciplinary effort to study how abnormal protein aggregates may spread from the gut to the brain to drive the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. The total award is 8.9 million US dollar grant for three years.

Are you going to study abroad during the spring semester of 2022 and want a fun and paid extra job? We are now looking for students who want to blog about what it is like to study abroad and inspire others to do the same.

Should masks be worn or not? What’s the best way to relieve pain? New information is constantly emerging from research. But translating new scientific results into practical applications often takes a long time.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have analysed the presence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies and memory cells of the immune system in young adults. The results, published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, show that over one in four had antibodies due to the infection. Fewer of these individuals had measurable levels of memory B and T cells compared with other age groups. The researchers will now study long COVID in young adults and the effects of vaccination on immunity.

As many as six photovoltaic power installations have now been put into operation on campus Solna. The installations are located on the roofs of, among others, Widerströmska huset, A Working Lab Innomedicum and the Berzelius Laboratory. Together, the solar cells cover an area of approximately 2,100 square metres and provide the campus area with renewable energy.

Circular RNAs’ role in cancer initiation and progression has gain a lot of interest recently, but there is no clear picture regarding their functional importance. New findings by researchers at Karolinska Institutet suggest that despite the relative abundance and differential expression, a substantial number of circular RNAs may represent “passenger molecules” with little impact on a cell, reflecting a stochasticity of the gene expression and splicing processes.

Behavioral Informatics Team Leader Aleksandra Sjöström-Bujacz will be teaching a doctoral course on Multilevel Data Analysis in Spring 2022.

It’s described as a technological advance in computed tomography and the hope is that this imaging technique will eventually become hospital standard. At the end of October, a new type of CT scanner will be unveiled in MedTechLabs, an interdisciplinary centre set up by Karolinska Institutet (KI), the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Region Stockholm. KI professor Staffan Holmin is one of the researchers behind the initiative.

Mariam Claeson is the senior project manager for the Political Economy of Adolescent Mental Health project at the Department of Global Public Health. After many years working abroad she is back at KI where her journey started as a medical student. She discusses progress in child health globally especially reduction in child mortality but is concerned about the major setbacks caused by the pandemic. Her focus now is on how to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents.

Muscle cells in patients with type 2 diabetes have a disrupted biological clock discover researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Karolinska Institutet. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, suggest that treatments for type 2 diabetes may be more or less effective depending on the time of day they are given.

Måns Magnusson at the research group Inborn Errors of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Deptartment of Molecular Medicine and Surgery will defend his thesis "Bioinformatic methods in rare disease" on October 22, 2021. Main Supervisor is Professor Anna Wedell.

The Medical Association has received a donation of SEK 15 million from The Hans and Barbara Bergstrom Foundation to refurbish the old student union building. The project has been ongoing for years with the aim of creating an inspiring environment for KI's students, doctoral students, researchers and alumni.

Antibodies in the airways quickly wane after SARS-CoV-2 infection, but vaccination results in a strong increase in antibody levels, especially after two doses, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal JCI Insight. The results suggest that having a second dose of vaccine also after recovering from COVID-19 may be important for protecting against re-infection and to prevent transmission.

Elin Larsson recieves 4 980 000 SEK in project grant for the project IMPROVE it: “IMplementing best practice postpartum contraceptive services through a quality imPROVEment initiative for and with immigrant women in Sweden”.

Congratulations to Claudia Hanson who has been appointed to the WHO TAG Maternal mortality estimations group.

Implementation of WHO’s recommended public health policies on alcohol, unhealthy foods and tobacco has been slow globally, according to a study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, published in the journal The Lancet Global Health. The study found particularly low implementation in poor, less democratic countries and where corporations had more influence for example through corruption and political favoritism.

Congratulations to Emilie Agardh who receives 4 920 000 SEK in project grant from Forte for the project A new approach to capture inequalities in health.

The Erling Persson Family Foundation has awarded Johan Lundin a research grant of 10 million SEK divided over three years for the project Artificial intelligence for diagnostics of cancer and infectious diseases in resource-limited settings - the MoMic Project. Johan has just returned from Kenya, where he has been planning the next steps of the project.

Karolinska Institutet and long-standing partner, Makerere University, have intensified their joint efforts to achieve the 2030 Agenda. In partnership with several academic institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as with Tinkr, a company specializing in innovation, they have co-created and started delivering on capacity building projects for health professionals to achieve the 2030 Agenda.