News archive

Women with epilepsy are four times more likely to die during pregnancy and their babies are 50 percent more likely to suffer illness or death. These are the findings of a major new study led by Karolinska Institutet and published in JAMA Neurology. The researchers believe that better care of women before, during and after pregnancy can reduce the risks.

Students, alumni and staff from KI participated in the colourful Pride parade under the universities' Adacemic Pride flag in Stockholm on 3 August. The atmosphere was great and this year's theme was clear – we are stronger together.

We welcome Philipp Valina Allo to join the group. Philipp finished his Master study in Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research Leipzig in 2024 and officially starts his work in our lab today. Philipp will work together with the team to investigate the mechanisms involved in MASLD development. Welcome Philipp!

On 15 August a maintenance test of the power will require brief (5-15 minutes) sequential shutdowns of all power in each section of Neo.

The power shutdown will be performed on ALL power outlets in Neo, including back-up power.

A cursory check of some equipment, such as low temperature freezers, will be done by the Neo service team in conjunction with the shutdown, but all research groups are recommended to afterwards check all their critical equipment such as incubators and freezers.

Anders Ekbom, Professor of Epidemiology and former Vice President of Karolinska Institutet, has died aged 76. He passed on 29 July after a long illness. Anders Ekbom had several roles and assignments at KI. ”His importance for Karolinska Institutet cannot be overestimated”, says KI’s President Annika Östman Wernerson.

Fetuses whose mothers had COVID-19 or were vaccinated during the first three months of pregnancy are not at increased risk of birth defects. This is the result of a large Nordic study published in the British Medical Journal.

During the year, the Swedish Research Council will carry out a comprehensive national evaluation of the quality and importance of preclinical research in basic medical and pharmaceutical sciences. KI is one of seven Swedish higher education institutions that are being audited. The Swedish Research Council's evaluation refers to the results of research published during the years 2018-2024.

Unicef is launching a report written by two KI researchers that describes the devastating consequences of climate change for children's health globally. The report summarises research from the field and over 30 experts. It identifies the six main climate hazards and shows that they pose a serious threat to children's health and well-being.

The Stockholm3 blood test, developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, is equally effective at detecting prostate cancer in different ethnic groups, a new paper published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology reports. The test produces significantly better results than the current PSA standard.

Update 2024-07-19 14:40: The service disruption is now solved.

We are currently experiencing a service disruption regarding accessing Microsoftservices from KI-networks. Troubleshooting is ongoing.

Affected services: Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint etc.
Affected networks: KI-Staff, Eduroam

Young Swedes are drinking less alcohol, but – as Isabella Gripe’s doctoral thesis shows – this is not because they have moved onto smoking hash.

A new e-mail list is now available for everyone working in Biomedicum: Forum Biomedicum. Here you can share and receive information about equipment, cultural events at KI, get advices etc.

Docent Georgios Sotiriou is awarded the ERC Proof of Concept grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The aim of the project is to investigate whether a light-activated nanocomposite film can be an effective treatment for severe, infected wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers. But also to prepare the step from innovation to medical device. This is the second time Georgios Sotiriou has been awarded the prestigious grant, and the third time he has received funding from the ERC.

What happens in the body when it gets very hot and how can health problems due to heat be prevented? These are examples of questions answered here by Petter Ljungman, cardiologist and researcher at the Institute for Environmental Medicine and expert coordinator at KI's Center for Health Crises.

Update 2024-07-11 13:00: The Service Disruption has been solved.

Sunet currently has an ongoing Service Disruption in EduSign. This means that digitally signing documents may be unavailable.

Troubleshooting is in progress.

For more information, visit Sunets page for operating status: https://status.sunet.se

A new study shows that women lose more years of life after a heart attack than men. A 50-year-old woman with a large heart attack loses an average of 11 years, while an 80-year-old man with a small heart attack loses an average of 5 months of life. The study was led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Danderyd Hospital and the results have been published in the journal Circulation.

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour offers a 5-day course in MR Methods used in Cognitive Neuroimaging.

Researchers at the Center for Infectious Medicine at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge have developed a new strategy that can make cell therapy against cancer work longer in patients. The results are published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Nobel laureate and former president of Karolinska Institutet, Bengt Samuelsson, passed away at the age of 90. Bengt Samuelsson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982, along with Sune Bergström (1916–2004) and John R. Vane (1927–2004), for their discoveries related to prostaglandins – hormone-like substances that regulate several important processes in the body. Bengt Samuelsson also served as president of Karolinska Institutet from 1983 to 1995.

Research published in the Lancet Global Health describes the crucial role that pulse oximeters have in risk-stratification in both hospital and primary care or outpatient settings. Carina King, Associate Professor at the Department of Global Public Health has had a leading role in the newly published viewpoint.

We welcome Ryan Lyu to our lab for a visiting study. Ryan is a second year Master student at Nanjing University. He will stay with us for 3 months. During this time, he will mainly participate in the project to explore how epigenetic modulators control liver cholesterol metabolism linked with atherosclerosis. We hope Ryan will have a fruitful study trip and enjoy his stay in Sweden. Welcome Ryan!

Researchers at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet characterize a novel GTPase involved in ribosome production in mitochondria. The study, published in Nature Communication, provides new insights into the process that enables mitochondria to produce energy.

The National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (NASP) at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm has compiled a summary of activities carried out during the 2023 operational year.

New findings from an international collaborative project highlight the pivotal role of TRP14 in health and disease.

The current agreement with Avonova occupational health care is extended until 30th of September. Information about the new agreement will be available at the end of September.

In the event that a new agreement is made with another health care company, ongoing cases at Avonova will be able to be closed at Avonova and do not need to be transferred to the new health care company.

At the beginning of July, Johan Fridell started as Financial controller at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH).

On June 25, 2024, the National Board of Health and Welfare released the latest suicide statistics for 2023. These figures are compiled and analyzed annually by the National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (NASP) at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm, covering national to local levels. The latest data is an increment in the overall Swedish suicide rate, from the historic low-point in year 2020, yet the overall downward trend since 2000 persists.

Air pollution could be responsible for 7 out of 100 deaths in India, and mortality is high even at levels well below national limit values. This is according to a new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and others. The researchers point to the need for comprehensive measures and stricter air pollution guidelines in India.

The health risks of welding particles and the consequences of sick leave in mental illness are topics for two of the six research projects that have now been granted a total of SEK 18 million by Afa Insurance. Three of the six projects are run by researchers at KI.

A recently published study has compared a new surgical method with the current standard treatment for primary management of cervical cancer.

Professor Bob Harris, academic vice-president of doctoral education, has been awarded the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) Education Award. This is the first time that the prize has been awarded.

Soon there will be some nice vacation weeks for many of us. But the fraudsters do not take time off. Unfortunately, summer is the peak season for online fraud and fraudulent e-mails. Fake invoices and fraud attempts via text messages and phone calls are common.

On 26 June, the President decided to repeal previous regulations and establish new guidelines for employment after reaching the LAS age (69 years, the age for the right to remain in employment).

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed nanorobots that kill cancer cells in mice. The robot’s weapon is hidden in a nanostructure and is exposed only in the tumour microenvironment, sparing healthy cells. The study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The activities of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition has been wound up and merged with the Department of Medicine, Huddinge. This means that the Department of Medicine, Huddinge is growing and that the activity at the department broadens.

Following a presidential decision that comes into effect on 1 July, the roles and mandates of KI’s deans are to be amended. The change is an outcome of the development of KI’s strategic focus areas.

From July 1 to August 9, KI Housing will have limited staff on duty. The response time may therefore be longer.

Csaba Adori, neurobiologist at the Department of Molecular Biosciences, Stockholm University, and affiliated to the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, receives the award for his outstanding work in 3D imaging of the body’s tissues.

Has your title changed recently? Or do you need a new photo?

The “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca in collaboration with NeurotechEU invites KI students and PhDs to a Erasmus+ BIP Mobility opportunity “Summer School of Brain Mapping and Stimulation Techniques” in September 2024 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

On May 23rd the KI Alumni Office hosted this year's alumni day, offering a focused program at The Cell, located in the newly opened building Forskaren in Stockholm, with a concluding evening mingle at the Nobel Prize Museum.

”Our strengths lie in our diverse professions, high pedagogical competence, and strong commitment to educational matters”, says Maria Hagströmer about the NVS Education Committee, which she leads as the Departmental Director of Education (GUA) at NVS.

The Study Programmes in Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Nursing and Specialist Nursing as well as the Complimentary Programme for Nurses with a degree from outside the EU/EES celebrated their graduating classes the last week of the spring 2024 semester.

On 15 July, a new solution for our KI-Guest wireless guest network will come into effect. Instead of entering a password, guests on campus will connect through a login portal.

A new study shows weak associations between psychiatric symptoms and selected inflammatory biomarkers in patients with chronic pain. The study found that sickness behavior contributed more to explaining psychiatric comorbidity.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that 45 genes may play a crucial role in the prognosis of patients with adrenal cancer. The findings, published in the journal ESMO Open, give hope for a better diagnostic tool than is currently available.

Steven N Kabwama, a PhD student in the research group GlobalChild Health and the SDGs attended the Global Health Security Conference that was held between 18th – 21st June 2024, Sydney Australia. He presented a poster on maintaining essential health services in Uganda that is part of hes doctoral research.

In 2021, Makerere University in Uganda and Karolinska Institutet established the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health based on their strong partnership. The Centre aims to develop capacity and mobilise actions to drive the agenda for sustainable health. We asked the current and former Chairs of the steering committee about the Centre's significance and its impact.

Björn Högberg has been assigned the role of Head of Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics (MBB), starting on July 1, 2024.