News archive

Older people with kidney disease have a higher risk of dementia, and the risk increases with the rate and stage of kidney function decline. That is according to a large observational study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Neurology. The findings stress the significance of screening and monitoring for dementia in persons with kidney disease, the researchers say.

Hi there, Johanna Simin, PhD student in Clinical Epidemiology at the Centre for Translational Microbiome Research at Karolinska Institutet! You will defend your thesis entitled "The role of oestrogens and antibiotics on the development of cancer" on 1 June 2021. Can you tell us a little more?

Hi there Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir, PhD student at the Aging Research Center (ARC). You will be defending your thesis entitled “Unequal tracks? Studies on work, retirement and health” on 24 May 2021. Could you tell us a little more about it?

On May 19th, the quarterly test and maintenance on the sprinkler system in Neo will take place. The work is expected to be done by lunchtime (~12) and we don't expect the audible alarm to be triggered.

A study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet and University of Gothenburg has found that low levels of a protein called PDGFRb are associated with particularly good results of radiotherapy in women with early-stage breast cancer. The study, which is published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, also suggests that the efficacy of radiotherapy can be improved with drugs that block this protein.

Perfectly controlled protein scissors at the molecular level reveal the binding sites of antibodies, and enable the bottom-up design of new monoclonal antibodies aimed at medically important target proteins.

To succeed in the international competition, researchers at Karolinska Institutet need secure access to cutting-edge technology as well as a wide range of basic core-facilities. The Research Committee has therefore adopted a strategy for activities related to core-facilities and research infrastructure until 2024.

Cancer of the colon and rectum is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and has in recent years affected growing numbers of young people. In the largest registry study to date, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Harvard University in the USA demonstrate a possible connection between colorectal polyps in close relatives and the risk of developing colorectal cancer. The study, which is published in The British Medical Journal, is of potential consequence for screening procedures.

StratNeuro has awarded SEK 1,000,000 in start-up grant to Kristoffer Månsson, who was granted a 2020 faculty-funded Assistant Professor (biträdande lektor) position.

Florian Schober from the research group Inborn Errors of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Systems biology of mitochondrial dysfunction" on May 7, 2021. Main Supervisor is Anna Wredenberg.

Nine out of ten cases of tuberculosis appear in 30 identified low and middle-income countries, each of which has a national tuberculosis programme. The managers of these programmes agree that it is important to screen for tuberculosis outside of health facilities. However, each screening programme must have its own well-considered, sustainable strategy and sufficient resources for it to be meaningful – which is not always the case today. This is one conclusion drawn by Olivia Biermann’s thesis.

In Sweden, there are over 2 million legally owned firearms. At the same time, up to 150,000 people live with a diagnosis of dementia. In an aging society such as Sweden, legislators will face challenges in gun ownership. A new registry-based observational study by researchers from NVS, Karolinska Institutet, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease shows a need for strategies for this growing problem.

Karolinska Institutet hopes to establish a new professorship in anti-doping and public health named after Arne Ljungqvist, who turns 90 this year. The university is now seeking donors for the professorship, which can be consequential in the fight against a grown public health problem.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a mechanism through which meningitis-causing bacteria can evade our immune system. In laboratory tests, they found that Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae respond to increasing temperatures by producing safeguards that keep them from getting killed. This may prime their defenses against our immune system and increase their chances of survival, the researchers say. The findings are published in PLoS Pathogens.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Public Health Agency of Sweden have studied newborn babies whose mothers tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy or childbirth. The results show that although babies born of test-positive mothers are more likely to be born early, extremely few were infected with COVID-19. The study, which is published in the esteemed journal JAMA, supports the Swedish recommendation not to separate mother and baby after delivery.

Be resilient, work hard – and have fun! In a conversation about their journey to becoming professors, Erika Franzén and Maria Hagströmer gave good advice to junior researchers.

In almost ten per cent of myocardial infarctions, no obvious cause in the coronary artery can be found. Some of the patients are diagnosed with broken-heart syndrome, while others are left without a diagnosis. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that early magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the heart can greatly increase the rate of diagnosis. The study has been published in the journal JACC Cardiovascular Imaging.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found links between certain blood groups and a total of 49 diseases, including a new finding that having blood group B seems to be a protective factor against kidney stones. The study, which includes data on more than five million people and over 1,000 diseases, confirms previously identified connections between certain blood groups and increased risk of blood clots, bleeding conditions or pregnancy-induced hypertension. The result is published in eLife.

Researchers at the Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet have completed a large study evaluating a screening instrument for assessing the risk of suicide in connection with a visit to an emergency psychiatric clinic. The researchers found a link between screening score and suicide risk a short time after the emergency visit. The study is published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Meetings booked in the webmail and online meetings in Teams will now be shortened by 5 minutes from previous default values. They will now be in 25/55/85 minutes.

This weekend marks five years since KI alumnus, researcher, and Swedish citizen, Ahmadreza Djalali was arrested and imprisoned in connection with a lecture tour in Iran. After a trial that can only be considered a legal scandal, with fabricated accusations and with no real chance of defending himself, Djalali was sentenced to death.

Karolinska Institutet has been granted renewed funding from the Swedish Institute (SI) to implement two capacity building training programmes for professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The training programmes will be offered online during 2021 - 2022.

On 13 April, KI Professor Sten Linnarsson was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

All meetings that are created in Outlook will now become a Teams Meeting.

Although hemorrhoids are a common health problem, relatively little is known about the field, possibly because many people find them difficult to talk about. Researchers linked to Karolinska Institutet have been involved in a study that has analysed the genomes of almost a million people and found previously unknown causes of severe hemorrhoids. The study, which is published in the journal Gut, also reveals links to other gastrointestinal diseases.

On May 4th, the quarterly test and maintenance on the fire detection and alarm system in Neo will take place. The work is expected to be ongoing between 07:00 - 11:00 and the alarm WILL sound occasionally.

New biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease are a priority area for researchers seeking to learn more about the disease and find possible methods of early diagnosis. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied a new PET tracer that is an important diagnostic tool for the disease. The study on the tracer substance BU99008, which is published in Molecular Psychiatry, can play a key part in the early identification of signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

Patients with atherosclerosis today usually receive preventive treatment only after a heart attack or stroke because diagnostic methods that can identify individuals and atherosclerotic plaques with high-risk are lacking. In addition, the choice of treatment, both surgical and medical, is based on large patient studies and the possibilities for individualizing treatment are small.

Malin Nygren-Bonnier, docent and head of the Division of Physiotherapy has been awarded a research grant from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.

Researchers from the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet, together with researchers from Uppsala University, the University of Eastern Finland and King's College London, have been awarded a research grant from Foundation for Research in Rheumatology (Foreum), for their project entitled "Autoimmune and molecular mechanisms for pain and fatigue in fibromyalgia".

Upcoming weekend 24-25 of April, Hemsö will perform spring cleaning of the garage in Novum, which means that no cars may be parked over the weekend.

Scheduled maintenance work for IDAC on April 22, 2021 between 13:00 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 12:00 and 22:00.

Blasting works will continue during week 15 and hopefully, if nothing delays this work, it should be finished after that.

On Thursday 22 April, starting after 7 pm, an update will be made of ki.se incl. education.ki.se, medarbetare.ki.se and nyheter.ki.se. The websites will be accessible to visitors during the update, but editors will not be able to log in and edit pages.

The international collaboration project “Management of chronIc cardiometabolic disease and treatment discontinuity in adult adhd patients” (TIMESPAN) has received a large grant from the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme.

New World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and handbook on systematic screening for active tuberculosis were published in March 2021. The handbook cites two studies from PhD students Olivia Biermann’s doctoral thesis, which she collaborated on with researchers from the department and members of the IMPACT TB project.

Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Director, will participate in the digital event - Cell & Gene Therapy 2021, May 18-19. Hans-Gustaf will present one of the Competence Center’s projects - Autologous NK Cells as Consolidation Therapy in Multiple Myeloma.

The European Renal Association – European Dialysis and Transplant Association has just announced their annual awards and Professor Juan-Jesus Carrero from the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet will receive the ERA-EDTA Award for Research Excellence for his work in kidney epidemiology, on June 7, 2021 at the 58th ERA-EDTA Congress.

Last autumn, KI announced an new internal funding for work on sustainable development initiatives. After fierce competition, five applications have now been selected to share one million SEK.

The causes of the serious muscle disease ALS still remain unknown. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, among others, have examined a type of cell in the brain blood vessels that could explain the unpredictable disease origins and dynamics. The results indicate a hitherto unknown connection between the nervous and vascular systems. The study, published in Nature Medicine, has potential implications for earlier diagnoses and future treatments.

Karolinska Institutet has signed an agreement with Wellcome Leap that enabled KI to join the Leap Health Breakthrough Network. This global network comprises many leading academic and research institutions across six continents, that are committed to solving the world’s most serious global health challenges.

Since March 2020, healthcare has acted "front line" in the fight against COVID-19. Many KI students have worked extra in healthcare during this period, and at the same time, they had to adapt to new routines with distance learning. One of the students who managed to juggle distance learning with an extra job within healthcare is the medical student Oscar Dwyer.

Francesca Castoldi, at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut), KI, has been awarded a research grant of 300 000 SEK from the Alex and Eva Wallström Foundation for scientific research and education.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD, is associated with several health risks. According to a new registry study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, NAFLD is linked to a 17-fold increased risk of liver cancer. The findings, published in Hepatology, underscore the need for improved follow-up of NAFLD patients with the goal of reducing the risk of cancer.

Simplifying processes for research-related agreements is one of the main goals of the sub-project within the programme Harmonized professional services.

The bike storage in the Novum garage is currently unavailable, since it is being moved to next to the D-elevator,

Histones are tiny proteins that bind to DNA and hold information that can help turn on or off individual genes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a technique that makes it possible to examine how different versions of histones bind to the genome in tens of thousands of individual cells simultanously. The technique was applied to the mouse brain and can be used to study epigenetics at a single-cell level in other complex tissues. The study is published in Nature Biotechnology.

During this time, you will not be able to use KI ELN.

The new upgrade has increased stability and fixes various previous defects.
New features include:
• a separate Powerpoint section for Mac
• the possibility to connect Microsoft Edge to Biovia
• the possibility to dictate voice notes in a body text section for PC.

See https://staff.ki.se/add-content for details

After the upgrade you will have to install the new version.
See https://staff.ki.se/technical-requirements.

Good cholesterol, which is transported in HDLs (high-density lipoproteins), plays a key part in the prevention of atherosclerosis and thus the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, according to a new paper co-authored by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Circulation, the anti-inflammatory properties of HDLs could be an even better biomarker for future cardiovascular events.

New weapon in the fight against Covid-19, while waiting for the vaccine. Listen to what Professor Qiang Pan-Hammarström at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, says in an interview in the newspaper Expressen.