News archive

"My new assignment is both fun and challenging. I am really looking forward to heading a department that is so active in both education and research," says Tassos Grigoriadis."

Researchers at Karolinska Institute have developed a novel method using DNA Nanoballs to detect pathogens, aiming to simplify nucleic acid testing and revolutionize pathogen detection. The study's results, published in Science Advances, could pave the way for a straightforward electronic-based test capable of identifying various nucleic acids in diverse scenarios quickly and cheaply.

Professor Mats Trulsson at the Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, has been awarded an honorary doctorate at Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, in Toulouse, France.

Extracellular vesicles are small cell bubbles that play a crucial role in how our cells communicate. A recent study published in Science Advances has unlocked some fascinating insights into these tiny messengers and their potential in healthcare.

On 28 August, Karin Vikström started as communications officer at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge.

The government has appointed Jan Albert, professor of infectious disease control at Karolinska Institutet and senior consultant at Karolinska University Hospital, to lead a government inquiry looking into strengthening the country’s preparedness for future pandemics. The directive concerns a national strategy for how pandemics are to be managed and a possible revision of the Communicable Diseases Act. The investigation should be delivered in February 2025.

A study by five NVS researchers published in The Journal of American Medical Directors Association, shows that fear of falling can increase the risk of injurious falls in older adults, especially for those with no apparent physiological risk of falling.

STINT, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, annually publishes an index measuring the internationalisation of Swedish higher education institutions. It has now given the maximum of five stars to Karolinska Institutet.

Pedagogical ambassadors are teachers or persons otherwise active in doctoral programmes or research schools who initially receive funded time to promote educational development. The purpose is to stimulate educational development within KI’s doctoral education. Now the application for a new call is open.

Two researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded ERC Starting Grants, totalling 3 million euro over five years. Kasper Karlsson and Juan Pablo Lopez will each receive EUR 1.5 million for projects that aim to fight cancer in children and understand how psychedelic compounds can be used to treat psychiatric disorders.

KI Housing has four Residence Assistants working in our accommodation area KI Residence Solna. Their mission is to be a helping hand for tenants staying in the area and to create a community where the tenants get to know their neighbors.

We are excited to share an interview with one of our standout students who recently completed the course on Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare (15hp).

KI’s only Erasmus Mundus Master programme, the Master programme Public Health in Disasters, will continue, following a renewed agreement between the three collaborating partners; KI, Universidad de Oviedo and the University of Nicosia. Course leaders look forward to continuing to provide students with the latest tools to work with public health in disasters and advance research in the field. And the new format of the programme allows for all students to come to KI.

On August 31, 80 new master's students from 23 different countries were welcomed to the Department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. During a welcome day, they got to know their new department, received tips on the use of AI tools, answered a quiz from Gapminder, and got to know fellow new students. In addition, they were treated to a lecture by former state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell on the topic "Is the pandemic over?"

Red blood cells exposed to oxygen deficiency protect against myocardial infarction, according to a new KI study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigations. The study also shows that the protective effect is enhanced by a nitrate-rich vegetable diet.

People without a secure job contract can reduce their risk of premature death by 20 percent if they gain permanent employment, a study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community reports. According to the researchers, the results indicate that job security in the Swedish labor market needs to improve.

Patients with cluster headache suffer from various sleep problems, such as insomnia, which also occur in periods when the patient is symptom-free and should be considered during treatment. This is shown by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in a study recently published in The Journal of Headache and Pain.

To start with, new bins, cleaning routines and staff information channels will be trialled over the coming weeks in Aula Medica and the administration building in Solna. The aim is for food waste to be recycled effectively throughout KI by the end of the year.

According to UNICEF, approximately one in five young people suffer from mental health issues, which in turn often leads to risk-taking with alcohol, tobacco and drugs. In the long run, it can cause lifelong health impairments in adulthood. In a three-year project coordinated by Karolinska Institutet, a method used to improve young people’s wellbeing in India, Kenya, the U.S. and Colombia is being evaluated to see if it can work in other parts of the world.

Tips from Grants Office regarding current calls

Cholesterol-lowering statins might protect patients with ulcerative colitis from developing and dying from colorectal cancer. Statin treatment was also associated with a lower risk of death regardless of cause in patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. This is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in eClinicalMedicine.

Vitamin C and other antioxidants stimulate the formation of new blood vessels in lung cancer tumours, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows. The discovery corroborates the idea that dietary supplements containing antioxidants can accelerate tumour growth and metastasis.

StratNeuro awards a total of 15 MSEK to support Collaborative Neuroscience Projects.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet found a high number of the so called natural killer cell, an important anti-lymphoma cell, in samples from patients with cutaneous lymphoma. However, the cells were immature and less active. A future therapy could be to restore their function locally. The study was published in Frontiers in Immunology.

Aula Medica was inaugurated in October 2013 and won the award Building of the Year 2014. Its expression is well known and associated with world-class medical research. Annually, many gatherings are held in the auditorium where the world's foremost people meet and ideas are shared and born.
On October 3rd, we want to celebrate this mighty building's tenth anniversary! All staff invited!

Professor Lars Olson is awarded the Arvid Carlsson Foundation’s major prize for outstanding research 2023. In addition, Professor Sophie Erhardt and Adjunct Professor Johan Lundberg are both awarded grants from the foundation.

During the fall, KI RIMS will gradually open up for usage. In the first step, you will be able to log in with your KI-id and view the aggregated information available about you and your research, as well as edit and add information. In the next step, new profile pages are released on ki.se, utilizing the information stored in KI RIMS.

Lifestyles, the pandemic and dental care were some of the topics under discussion when Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed visited Karolinska Institutet on 28 August, the same day as the autumn term kicked off.

Starting from week 34, there will be two lunch training sessions per week for all employees at Biomedicum. The training will be diverse, and everyone can participate since the exercises will be easy to perform at the level that suits each individual.

When the Minister for Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed visited KI on Monday 28 August, he met, among others, the director of the Centre for Health Crises, Johan von Schreeb. During the meeting the Centre highlighted the need for national collaboration on the role of universities in crises, as well as a national ability (surge capacity), focused on people trained in handling health crises, to be ready when the crisis hit.

Do you want to increase your awareness of the environment and climate in a fun, simple and different way, and at the same time feel the pep of being more people doing it at the same time?! Then you should take the chance and join the NVS autumn challenge for 14 days: October 9-22. Everyone can participate!

The European Commission recently released the results of the 2023 call for European universities. NeurotechEU, the European University of Brain and Technology, where KI is a partner, is among the 30 selected alliances that will receive 14.3 million euro to continue their collaborations for another four years.

Stressed at the office or in the lab? Stiff shoulders? Need focus? Join us for lunch yoga sessions in Biomedicum. Everybody is welcome - no experience needed!

On August 22, Magnus Håkansson took office as head of security at KI and as head of the security unit at the university administration.

KI and the Univeristy of Toronto recently celebrated a course collaboration that has been ongoing for more than 25 years.

Take part in this Autumn's webinars and courses with focus on teaching and learning, in order to develop your pedagogical competence.

Felicia Petersson joined the Department of Neuroscience on 7 August 2023. She will be working as a HR-partner along with Malin Guvéus. We took the opportunity to ask her some questions in view of her first day and the autumn.

To reduce the risk of complications, it is important to measure antibodies in individuals who develop diabetes in adulthood, while also considering the levels of these antibodies.

A research internship enables doctors on an internship to combine their regular clinical internship (in Swedish Allmäntjänstgöring - AT) with up to 12 months of research at KI.
Apart from being eligible for an internship, candidates must also at the time of the application, hold a medical degree and either as a registered doctoral student at KI or a PhD engaged in research at KI.

KI is expanding the international programme offering with a new international master's programme in biostatistics and data science. The programme is given in collaboration between Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University.

A new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has examined how T cells of the immune system are affected by weightlessness. The results, which are published in the journal Science Advances, could explain why astronauts’ T cells become less active and less effective at fighting infection.

A new study published in Cell Metabolism by the research group of Professor Nils-Göran Larsson, at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, shows that so-called supercomplexes have no major role in cellular energy production and that altered levels therefore are unlikely to affect physiology and disease.

RNA has a central role in the cell's protein production. New research shows that RNA can be changed through various chemical modifications, the function of which is unknown to most. The study was carried out by researchers within Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Department of Biosciences and Nutrition and published in the scientific journal Science Advances.

Tips from KI Grants Office about current calls.

Welcome to a new academic year! Even though many of you have already returned to work after the summer break, it’s certainly when students start returning to our campuses that Karolinska Institutet becomes the gloriously vibrant place that a university is meant to be.

On 17 August the Swedish Security Service raised the terrorist threat level from 3 (elevated) to 4 (high) on a five-point scale on account of the increased threat of terrorism in the country. The Security Service believes that the threat will remain for the foreseeable future, and has raised the level as a signal to all public bodies that they must continue their efforts to reduce the risk of an attack.

Hi Anders Rydström, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics. On September 8 you will defend your thesis ”Mental stimulation and multimodal trials to prevent cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease”, what is the main focus of the thesis?

Biomedicum’s own choir, Biomusicum, now welcomes new members. The choir is open for all staff and students at Biomedicum and both beginners and experienced singers are welcome. No previous experience required. If you have always wondered about singing in a choir, but have never taken the step, then this is your opportunity!

In June, we announced the assignment as project manager for the new Biomedical Laboratory Science Programme. This assignment is now appointed.

Karolinska Institutet has a long-standing collaboration with the global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. In a recently published feature article in Drug Discovery Today, academic and industry representatives describe three success factors that help to leverage the strength of these types of partnerships: mutual collaboration, mutually beneficial science, and a mutual governance model with senior management involvement (3MCs).