News archive

Mikael Odenberg took over as Chairman of the University Board of Karolinska Institutet on 1 December 2016 and has two urgent matters to attend to: recruit a new vice-chancellor and clean up after the Macchiarini case. The minister responsible, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, says that the partly new board is expected to restore confidence in Karolinska Institutet and Swedish medical research.

Martin M. Corcoran, Ganesh E. Phad, Néstor Vázquez Bernat and Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam have published in Nature Communications in an paper that increases our understanding of genetic variation.

Vicente Pelechano Garcia at the Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology is one of two researchers to be awarded a Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. The grant is arranged jointly by five private research foundations and is awarded to young research group leaders who achieved a top grade and proceeded to the interview stage of their ERC Starting Grant application but did not make it all the way.

Two MTC researchers have been appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows, an appointment that includes funding for between 5 to 9 million SEK per researcher for a five year period

Seven young researchers connected to Karolinska Institutet have been appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows 2016. The purpose of this program, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, is to boost Sweden as a research nation by retaining the greatest research talents in the country and by recruiting young international researchers to Swedish universities.

Depression is the predominant mental disease and constitutes the most common cause of morbidity in developed countries. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to find a connection between development of depression and the existence of an enzyme in the brain of the fetus.

Professor Emeritus Folke Sjöqvist and newly appointed Professor Nagihan Bostanci followed different paths to Karolinska Institutet. One became a professor within a brand new research field and the other changed countries when she was appointed professor at Karolinska Institutet.

Opinions have varied on how many professors Karolinska Institutet is to have. The first change took place in 1993, when over a hundred “kingdoms” were abolished.

Since 2011 universities and institutions of higher education in Sweden have had greater freedom to decide themselves on the appointment of a professor. Karolinska Institutet has chosen to expose professorships to competition and has abolished the right to be promoted.