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Anna Wedell, professor at Karolinska Institutet, has been awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) Gold Medal 2023 for her efforts in precision medicine. This gold medal has been awarded since 1921 for outstanding achievements in technology, economics, business and society.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common causes of death in Sweden and in the world. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, among others, have now found that artificial intelligence seems to play a role in identifying the risk of cardiovascular disease. The study, published in Cardiovascular Research, may in the future lead to more accurate diagnostic methods.

The SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) was launched in 2020 and is supported by funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. This 12-year initiative is hosted by SciLifeLab and focuses on four strategic areas of research in Sweden: Cell and Molecular Biology, Evolution and Biodiversity, Precision Medicine and Diagnostics, and Epidemiology and Biology of Infection.

Karolinska University Hospital's Director Björn Zoëga and Karolinska Institutet's President Annika Östman Wernerson have signed an agreement to establish a joint center for advanced cell, gene and tissue therapies.

To bring Sweden’s presidency of the EU to a close, the government is arranging a European Life Science conference to be held at Karolinska Institutet’s Aula Medica on 26–27 June. The theme of the conference is precision medicine, and KI – along with Karolinska University Hospital – has helped to draw up the programme.

Professor Stefan Swartling Peterson was invited to present on “prevention” in Warsaw, Poland, as the World Bank’s Anna Koziel organized a seminar May 19th to inspire prevention stakeholders from Poland and Western Ukraine. The challenge is to conceive an Non Communicable Disease prevention agenda that involves more than health care and to develop Primary Health Care. We foresee further collaboration opportunities as this initiative develops.

A new Swedish study on the etiology of neuromuscular disorders has been published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Neurology. The study was carried out by researchers in the Rare Diseases group at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, in collaboration with doctors at Karolinska University Hospital.

As part of the Swedish presidency of the EU's Council of Ministers, the health ministers of EU countries were invited to an informal meeting in Stockholm on the 4th and 5th of May. The meting concerned issues of preparedness and securing access to innovative and established medicines.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have together with health economists at Linköping University analyzed costs for various methods to diagnose genetic causes of intellectual disability. The study, published in Scientific Reports, shows that the costs when using whole genome sequencing as a first-line diagnostic test were lower compared to chromosomal microarray analysis.

Region Stockholm has launched a new action plan for precision medicine in the region. The plan, which was devised in consultation with Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, will allow more patients to benefit from the research being done in the field of precision medicine.

A team of researchers at Karolinska Institutet, SciLifeLab and Karolinska University Hospital will receive a total of 14.7 million Swedish kronor from the Swedish Research Council (VR). The four-year grant is part of the council’s push to increase accessibility to research infrastructure and will involve making available new technologies for clinical studies in precision medicine.

Minister for Education Mats Persson met researchers and students when he visited Karolinska Institutet on 1 February. Topics of discussion with the students included the conditions relating to clinical placements, student funding rules and the situation for overseas students and doctoral students. The researchers, for their part, talked about the progress being made in areas such as precision medicine and about KI’s preparedness for new health crises.

Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet are creating Sweden’s first innovation environment for the development of precision medicine technologies. The decision to establish a join innovation environment for healthcare, research and precision medicine technologies in Solna and Huddinge is a vital step in growing the field of precision medicine.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the Centre for Imaging Research (CIR), SciLifeLab, and RISE have together received a grant of over SEK 100 million from the European Commission's Digital Europe programme. The project, called TEF-Health, will, among other things, promote the rapid introduction of new artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics solutions in healthcare.

From byte to bench to bed side – addressing large and complex data sets in biomedicine
KI Network Medicine Alliance offers an advanced course in Network Medicine 19th-20th of October 2022

In Sweden, the key to the successful implementation of precision medicine in healthcare has been the bottom-up approach where academia and healthcare have joined forces to build a national infrastructure. 42 authors from the Clinical Genomics platform at SciLifeLab and Genomic Medicine Sweden, GMS, summarizes the work in Nature Medicine.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) has been assigned the task of hosting the national node for data-driven life science in precision medicine and diagnostics. By developing and providing support and optimal conditions, the aim is to drive research in this area forwards regionally, nationally and internationally.

EIT Health Scandinavia International has awarded SEK 23 million in research grants to support international collaboration in precision prevention in rheumatology, with almost half of the grant distributed to Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm. The scope of the project includes creating the conditions for the early diagnosis of risk factors for developing RA (rheumatoid arthritis) and enabling patients at risk of developing RA to manage the risk through lifestyle changes.

Currently available therapies to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) lack precision and can lead to serious side effects. Researchers at KI have now developed a method for identifying the immune cells involved in autoimmune diseases, and have identified four new target molecules of potential significance for future personalised treatment of MS. The results, which are published in Science Advances, have been obtained in collaboration with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Region Stockholm.

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.

Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have strengthened collaboration within precision medicine by establishing the Precision Medicine Centre Karolinska (PMCK) and have now entered into a unique cooperation agreement.

The February sun was glittering in the glazed facades when Karolinska Institutet welcomed Minister for Education Anna Ekström on Monday 28 February. Meanwhile, the situation grew gloomier in Ukraine, which was demonstrated by, amongst other things, a lecture in disaster medicine.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Gothenburg have found another piece of the puzzle in the treatment of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new case report, published in JCO Precision Oncology, describes the successful targeted treatment of a boy with neuroblastoma and a specific mutation.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in USA, have mapped how genes work together to cause cardiovascular disease. The study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, suggests that that nearly 60 percent of the risk associated with coronary artery disease may be explained by regulatory gene networks.

Can artificial intelligence (AI) overcome the challenges of precision medicine? We asked Magnus Boman, professor at KTH and affiliated to KI, whose research includes looking at how AI can be used in healthcare.

What is precision psychiatry? KI researcher Kristiina Tammimies gives an example. She is a research leader at the KIND competence centre, the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, and studies the role of genetics in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Not just care, but not just research either. No, precision medicine requires healthcare and research to find new ways of interacting. Meet the experts working at the cutting edge of healthcare. Read the first article in an in-depth series about precision medicine from KI's Swedish popular science magazine.

Analysing molecular characteristics and their variation during lifestyle changes, by combining digital tools, classical laboratory tests and new biomolecular measurements, could enable individualised prevention of disease. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland published in the journal Cell Systems. The researchers show what a proactive healthcare model could comprise and how it could help in maintaining good health.

A protein that protects cells from DNA damage, p53, is activated during gene editing using the CRISPR technique. Consequently, cells with mutated p53 have a survival advantage, which can cause cancer. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found new links between CRISPR, p53 and other cancer genes that could prevent the accumulation of mutated cells without compromising the gene scissors’ effectiveness. The study, published in Cancer Research, can contribute to tomorrow’s precision medicine.

The government is set to invest through the innovation authority Vinnova another SEK 96 million on Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS), a national organisation led from Karolinska Institutet. Regions and universities are also putting up SEK 124 million, making a total of SEK 220 million that will make it possible to continue introducing precision medicine into Swedish healthcare.

On 8 September, the German President, H.E. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf visited Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

New review article looks at readiness prior to the implementation of genomics-based precision medicine in complex diseases. The extensive work has been led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University and has been carried out together with some 30 researchers throughout Sweden. The results are now being published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, JIM.

Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm have been working together for just under a year to increase the pace of introduction of precision medicine, which briefly means diagnostics, treatment and follow-up at the right time and adapted to the patient's individual circumstances. In this collaboration, the establishment of a virtual precision medicine centre has been a priority.