News archive

In October 2019 a delegation from Karolinska Institutet visited China to recruit scholars.

High levels of traffic exhaust at one’s residence increases the risk of stroke even in low-pollution environments, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and other universities in Sweden. The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggests that it is mainly black carbon from traffic exhaust that increases the risk for stroke, and not particulate matter from other sources.

SOLIID, a research group at the Medical Management Centre (MMC) at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and ethics, receives funding from Vinnova for the project "Utveckla framtidens utveckling - En arena för organisatoriskt lärande om innovativ utveckling inom vård och omsorg", loosely translated “Develop future development - an arena for organisational learning on innovative development in healthcare and social services".

Jesper Eisfeldt from the research group Rare Diseases will defend his thesis "Characterization of structural chromosomal variants by massively parallel sequencing" on November 8th, 2019. Main Supervisor is Anna Lindstrand.

A type of immune cell called neutrophils could be responsible for controlling bacterial numbers of an antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on human skin before the bacteria get a chance to invade, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Cell Reports. The results could provide an explanation for why this superbug is only carried transiently by some people.

We are now initiating the recruitment of seven new professors in a strategic effort to reinforce the educational development of our programmes and to improve the conditions for a close collaboration between research and education.

John Övretveit, involved in the programme Patients in the driver's seat! Implementing patient-driven co-care innovations, have written a chapter in the book Patient Engagement-How Patient-provider Partnerships Transform Healthcare Organizations, which was published at Palgrave Macmillan in October 2019.

Hi Tina Lundberg, PhD-student at the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. On November 22 you will defend your thesis ”Psychosocial well-being in bereavement among family members with a special focus on young adults who have lost a parent to cancer”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

More than 700 students from KI’s study programmes took part in IPL Day on 22 October. This day is one feature of KI’s action plan for interprofessional learning.

The Swedish Research Council has granted 118 researchers at Karolinska Institutet a combined 500 million kronor for the years 2019-2024. In total, the council is allocating almost 1.1 billion kronor to 254 people for research within medicine and health.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered the essential role of the ribonuclease REXO2 in mitochondrial RNA degradation. The enzyme is essential for life, as a deficiency of it in mice has shown to be embryonic lethal. The study is published in the journal Molecular Cell.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and the University of Pireus have presented a new method for finding matches among the various components of ontologies in healthcare in order to facilitate semantic interoperability. The study is published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

Karolinska Institutet’s Culture Week took place between October 14 and 18 with numerous events and activities that showcased the richness of talents and perspectives within our university.

Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet are the first in Sweden to apply for an accredited Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) by the Organization of European Cancer Institutes (OECI). On October 23-24 an is taking place at Karolinska University Hospital.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have followed children who have sought emergency care for wheezing during their first years of life and found specific biomarkers that can predict the need for asthma medication several years later. The study is published in the prestigious European Respiratory Journal.

Our beloved friend and colleague Annette Heijne passed away on October 4, following a long period of illness.

Hello there, Sergiu Catrina - Associate Professor, Specialist Physician and Research Leader for the Growth and Metabolism Group at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery.

People with multiple sclerosis who can walk at a relatively normal speed and effectively process information are more likely to continue to participate in social activities, according to a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. The findings highlight the importance of integrating motor and cognitive rehabilitation in the care of patients with MS.

StratNeuro awards a total of 1,6 MSEK to the following Collaborative Neuroscience Pilot Research Projects.

In this study, researchers from the department of Oncology-Pathology (Monica Nistér, Catharina Larsson, Adam Stenman and Christofer Juhlin together with colleagues from Karolinska Institutet, Great Britain and USA, including this year's Nobel prize winner Dr. WG Kaelin Jr described a new mechanism regarding how certain mutations in the tumor suppressor gene von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) leads to increased risk for development of pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new cheap method that can identify highly heterogeneous tumours that tend to be very aggressive, and therefore need to be treated more aggressively. The technique is presented in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

People with atopic eczema have many more Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in their skin than those with healthy skin or psoriasis, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland. The study, published in the Nature Communications, shows how the S. aureus bacteria displaced other potentially health-promoting bacteria. The discovery may be important for future treatments of the skin disease.

For the eight year in a row, Karolinska Institutet’s Global Master’s Scholarship has been awarded to Master’s students from outside Europe.

Mushroom pickers and kite surfers who want to cure cancer and eliminate chronic pain – those are some of the 13 new professors inaugurated at Karolinska Institutet on Thursday in a ceremony in Aula Medica. Some 750 guests had gathered to welcome the new professors in addition to eight adjunct professors, four visiting professors, eight prize winners and four medalists.

This year’s KLOK Award goes to Danderyd’s Academic Care Centre for their exemplary well-organised student work.

Hi there Anne Leppänen, PhD student at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Prevention Policy and Practice (PPP), defending her doctoral thesis "Tobacco Cessation on Prescription – a primary healthcare intervention targeting socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in Stockholm". What is it about?

The company "Care to translate", founded and developed by KI students, was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year in the Business Challenge 2019.

“MedH is a department with fantastic opportunities for ground-breaking translational research, and heading such a department is a very attractive proposition", says Petter Höglund.

Children are more likely to have higher systolic blood pressure by age six if their mom used the Swedish powdered tobacco product snus during pregnancy. This according to a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences have investigated the effects of testosterone supplementation in young athletically active women in a randomised, placebo-controlled trial. The results, which are published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, show that there is a causal relationship between elevated male sex hormone levels and increased aerobic capacity in young women. There was also an increase in muscle mass but not muscle strength.

Children born to women who underwent gastric bypass surgery before becoming pregnant had a lower risk of major birth defects than children born to women who had severe obesity at the start of their pregnancy. That’s according to a matched cohort study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University published in the scientific journal JAMA. The findings indicate that weight-loss and improved blood sugar control could reduce the risk of major birth defects.

We become weaker as we get older. For those who suffer from severe muscle loss at an early age, the consequences in everyday life are often significant. Thomas Gustafsson is researching the causes of these changes and how they can be counteracted.

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2019 have explained a vital ability – how cells adapt to the availability of oxygen. These discoveries have opened the door to new strategies for combating anaemia, cancer and many other diseases and are now being investigated further at institutions including Karolinska Institutet.

Chronic kidney disease often goes undetected until late stages, but is of great significance to individuals’ overall health. Juan Jesus Carrero uses clinical epidemiology to improve the identification and management of those afflicted with the disease.

Refugees who fled to Sweden were no more likely to die by suicide than migrants who moved to the country on their own terms, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and UCL in the U.K. However, the risk of suicide for both groups increased the longer they stayed in Sweden and was after 20 years almost on par with that of the native population. The study is published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

A mobile app for postoperative follow-up care leads to better patient outcomes and lower healthcare costs. Ulrica Nilsson investigates how e-health solutions can improve perioperative care.

Mental disorders, such as depressive and anxiety disorders, can lead to long-term sick leave – but excessively prolonged sick leave can also aggravate the illness. Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz conducts research on the links between mental disorders and social insurance.

Johan Lundin is using mobile digital solutions and artificial intelligence to make diagnostics accessible, safe, and accurate in low-income countries. The tools he is developing can also reduce the workload of doctors and laboratory personnel in high-income countries.

Researcher at Karolinska Institutet have identified the first genetic link to CGRP signaling and cluster headache. CGRP is a neuropeptide that can trigger both migraines and cluster attacks and now several drugs are successfully launched that have CGRP or its receptor as their target. The results are published in a study in Cephalagia Report.

Uwe Tietge researches the function of cholesterol in the body. His aim is to map basic mechanisms of metabolism’s molecular regulation and to identify novel targets for innovative cardio- vascular disease treatments.

New liquid nitrogen feeding pipes are being installed to the EM-facility at the Wargentin-house. Therefore, the liquid nitrogen feeding to cryo-freezers will be interrupted from noon on Monday 21 October and until Tuesday morning 22 October.

Exosomes are tiny particles secreted by cells. They are involved in important processes in the body and may have useful clinical applications, including improved cancer treatments. Susanne Gabrielsson is one of the veterans of this young field of research.

Congratulations to Lennart Ilke, senior adviser at Karolinska Institutet’s Property and Facilities Office! He now also has the distinction of having translated to Swedish one of the books by the Polish winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature, Olga Tokarczuk.

Johan von Schreeb is appointed Professor of Global Disaster Medicine at the Department of Public Health Sciences, from 15 October 2019.

Professor Emeritus Gunnar Höglund, doctor and researcher, died on October 3, 2019, 88 years old. His importance in highlighting the importance of medical education research and its development is unmatched in the history of Karolinska Institutet.

DNA origami involves ways in which DNA can be used to build nanoscale constructions. Björn Högberg has improved this technique and uses it for both basic research and the development of clinical applications.

Keith Humphreys develops and uses statistical methods for epidemiological research. He has a special interest in breast cancer risk assessment and in the studying the effectiveness of mammography screening.

Marie Hasselberg conducts epidemiological research on various types of injuries, including traffic injuries. Her aim is to identify both causes and possible improvements. Much of her research takes place in low- and middle-income countries.

Living with chronic pain is challenging – not least because of the limited number of good treatments. Camilla Svensson is researching the mechanisms behind persistent pain in rheumatic diseases and how it can be tackled in new, more effective ways.