News archive

Just over two years ago, Arne Persson had a bad fall while walking his dog in the woods. He struck his coccyx badly but was able to get home. The pain just grew and grew over the next few days, so in the end he went to A&E at the hospital. After an X-ray, he was sent home because nothing was broken. This article is part of an in-depth feature from KI's popular science magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap.

Petra Kormo’s second baby was born on Wednesday, 4 January 2017. Everything went well with the birth, but Petra developed a fever after she arrived home. She felt weaker and sicker for every day that passed. This article is part of an in-depth feature from KI's popular science magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap.

Sepsis has a way of flying under the radar. Public awareness of the life-threatening disease is low, and official statistics are misleading. Now researchers are using special alarm systems and AI to increase detection. This article is part of an in-depth feature from KI's popular science magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap.

The risk of being infected by parvovirus is elevated in those people who have blood group Rh(D), according to a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Octapharma.

Congratulations to Joanna Zawacka-Pankau who has been appointed docent in Medical Biotechnology with focus on Biochemistry at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH).

Congratulations to Magnus Tobiasson who has been appointed docent in hematology at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH).

The Nobel Minisymposium “From models towards regenerative therapies” was held at Nobel Forum on October 12, where eight prominent international scientists within the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine presented their recent work.

A study from Karolinska Institutet sheds new light on the question of whether the sex and previous pregnancy of blood donors affects survival in patients who receive red blood cell transfusions. According to the study, which is published in JAMA Internal Medicine, neither of these factors has such an effect, after accounting for the lower haemoglobin levels in blood from women.

Congratulations to Mattias Carlsten at The Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM) who has been appointed docent in hematology at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet.

The causes of complex diseases can be identified by representing them in the form of mathematically produced networks. This method was used to find bacteria that drive atopic dermatitis, for example.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated the use of low dose venetoclax, an experimental drug, for the treatment of the heterogeneous cancer disease multiple myeloma in patients who had relapsed on standard therapies. The findings are published in the American Journal of Hematology and provide new hope for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

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.

The Tobias Foundation grant in 2020 has been awarded to Magnus Tobiasson and Eva Hellström Lindberg, both researchers at Karolinska Institutet. The grant amounts to SEK 10 million over a five-year period. It will support research on early detection of relapse after stem cell transplantation for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome.

A simple blood test may help predict which people with multiple sclerosis (MS) will get worse during the following year, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published online in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Acute porphyria is a group of uncommon diseases that can cause severe, potentially life-threatening attacks of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and paralysis. Liver transplantation is currently the only effective treatment available for the most seriously afflicted patients. A clinical trial conducted in collaboration with researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now shows that a new drug candidate can prevent attacks in these patients. The study is published in The New England Journal of

In contrast to what has been previously believed, development of blood stem cells to mast cells, a type of specialised immune cell, does not depend on a growth factor called stem cell factor. This has been demonstrated in a new collaborative study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, and published in the scientific journal Blood. The results could pave the way for new treatments for certain types of blood diseases.

A new mechanism that regulates the way blood vessels grow and connect to each other has been discovered by an international team of researchers at Karolinska Institutet, and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. The knowledge might open up new opportunities for future cancer therapy. The study is published in the scientific journal PNAS.