News archive

On Saturday, March 15th, StratNeuro hosted the annual En Resa Genom Härnan event as part of Brain Awareness Week 2025.

The Committee for Research at Karolinska Institutet has, after a careful inventory, decided to award Eric Thelin's research group, active at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, SEK 730,000 from a donation bequeathed by Erik Gut.

New research suggests that antidepressants can accelerate cognitive decline in people with dementia. At the same time, some drugs appear to be less harmful than others, which can help doctors make better treatment decisions, according to the study published in BMC Medicine.

We are pleased to invite you to the interdisciplinary NeurotechEU Summer School "Trust me! Neural Networks, Manipulation, and Ethics" at the University of Bonn, taking place 8-11 September 2025.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered a fundamental mechanism that affects the size of the pupil, namely our breathing. The study, published in The Journal of Physiology, shows that the pupil is smallest during inhalation and largest during exhalation – something that could affect our vision.

StratNeuro aims to support the development and dissemination of new technologies and therefore announces a new round of this funding call.

KI NeurotechEU steering group is pleased to announce the availability of limited competitive funds for KI faculty, staff and/or students to conduct collaborative interactions within the field of Neurotechnology.

We congratulate Tobias Granberg, Docent and research group leader at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience (CNS), appointed adjunct professor of neuroradiology.

The Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR) awards Josefin Särnholm the Neal Miller New Investigator Award.

The ability to plan several steps ahead and promptly adapt to a rapidly changing environment is essential to being an elite footballer, a new study led from Karolinska Institutet reports. The paper, which is published in the scientific journal PNAS, also shows that it helps not to always be so agreeable.

PhD student Birte Schmid from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Karolinska Institutet reflects on her enriching experience at the BonnBrain3 Meeting on "States – Behavior, Neural Circuits and Codes."

Stockholm continues to be an important center for Swedish Parkinson's research. For 2025, the Parkinson's Foundation has decided to provide funding for more than 40 new projects that can help Swedes with Parkinson's disease, of which 14 research projects are conducted at Karolinska Institutet.

We congratulate Johan Bjureberg on receiving almost SEK 20 million from VR Behandlingsforskning for the study Preventing Suicide With Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youths (SAFETY): A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Psychosocial Intervention.

The Committee for Doctoral Education at Karolinska Institutet has granted five KID grants to the Division of Neuro (Department of Clinical Neuroscience) for projects focusing on multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

The Committee for Research at Karolinska Institutet has granted a total of SEK 1.8 million to the Karolinska Neuroimmunology and Multiple sclerosis network (KNIMS), a consortium of preclinical and clinical scientists who share a common aim to improve the understanding, treatment and healthcare of neuroinflammatory diseases with a special focus on Multiple Sclerosis.

The August Prize in the non-fiction category goes to Christian Rück, professor of psychiatry, for “Ett liv värt att leva. Varför självmord blev människans följeslagare” (A life worth living. Why suicide became man's companion). According to the jury, the book is written with ‘a liberating self-evidence’.

Congratulations to our seven researchers at the Division of Neuro, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, who have been granted over 31 million SEK in project grants from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) in their call Medicine and Health, as well as International Collaborations in Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND), 2024.

University of Bergen in collaboration with researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded a significant grant funded by Horizon Europe with €7 million during 2024-2028 in recognition of their dedication to target Epstein-Barr virus to treat and prevent Multiple Sclerosis.

Congratulations to Linn Öijerstedt for receiving financial support by BioArctic for her postdoctoral fellowship in the pursue of finding a marker of TDP-43 pathology. In addition, Linn has received grants from Björklunds foundation and Demensfonden for her projects on cognitive and behavioural impairment in ALS.

Juliette Foucher's paper validating the Edingburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS) in Swedish.

Supervisors Michael Ratz and Kristiina Tammimies share how their students’ participation in NeurotechEU brought back tangible benefits and some exciting new possibilities.

The Collaborative Research Projects will support new multidisciplinary collaborations for ambitious yet feasible research projects in all areas of Neuroscience. The aim is to promote multidisciplinary research through new and innovative collaborations of outstanding scientific quality.

Daniel Lundqvist, docent of clinical neuroscience at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, will be employed as professor of neuroimaging as of November 1, 2024.

On July 1, 2023, research group leader Karin Jensen was employed as professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience (CNS).

In a recent conversation, Abishek Arora, the founding Co-chair of the NeurotechEU Student Council and student representative at Karolinska Institutet, opened up about his transformative experience with the NeurotechEU initiative.

To facilitate new and existing contacts between researchers and doctoral students as well as increase research collaboration across the NeurotechEU network, the KI NeurotechEU group is introducing the availability of limited competitive funds for a lab visit for PhD students and postdocs during Spring 2025.

This call aims to facilitate new and existing contacts as well as increase research collaboration with the University College London and Karolinska Institutet.

Kyla McKay, researcher in MS epidemiology and affiliated with the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, has been awarded the Bjarne Ahlström Minnesfonds pris in “Clinical Neurology - especially inflammatory mechanisms affecting central or peripheral nervous system function”.

The European University of Brain and Technology would like to invite you to come present your research at the next NeurotechEU meeting in Istanbul, Turkey!

StratNeuro Welcomes New Board Members and Thanks Outgoing Members

Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes are associated with accelerated brain ageing, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Diabetes Care. The good news is that this may be counteracted by a healthy lifestyle.

Eva Kosek, professor of Clinical Pain Research, has been awarded Roland Melzack Lecture Award by the International Association for the Study of Pain.

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.

The StratNeuro Retreat 2024, held from June 3rd to June 5th at the picturesque Djurönäset Hotel, was a resounding success. With over 250 participants, this retreat offered an exceptional opportunity for networking, scientific exchange, and relaxation in a stunning location.

To foster fresh collaborations and interactions across the NeurotechEU network, the KI NeurotechEU group is introducing funding opportunities for short-term visits by KI faculty and researchers.

The Strategic Neuroscience Research Network (StratNeuro) at Karolinska Institutet celebrated the International Brain Awareness Week with an open symposium on Monday 11 March 2024.

The StratNeuro Start-up Grant is intended to support outstanding Neuroscience researchers at the beginning of their careers. StratNeuro will allocate in total SEK 6,000,000 to fund this initiative, each project receiving SEK 500,000/year for a period of two years.

Caroline Ingre receives a Royal grant

Last week, the University Management visited CNS as part of their tour to meet all of KI’s Departments.

A recent study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University has found that cognitive impairment varies significantly among individuals with newly diagnosed psychosis.

Following an internal evaluation of the proposals, the StratNeuro board has decided to award SEK 100,000 to the proposal sent by Onur Dagliyan at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, to host a two months' visit in his laboratory by Cristian Ripoli, Associate Professor at the Department of Neuroscience of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.

The Docent Committee decided on the 24 of August 2023 to admit Rayomand Press and Chartih Cooray as docents in neurologi.

Monitoring brain injury biomarkers and glucose variation in patients who have suffered an acute cranial injury during the entire first week of hospitalisation can provide a more accurate picture of the pathological process. This is according to a paper by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in The Lancet Neurology. It is hoped that their findings can eventually lead to more personalised treatment.

Neuroförbundet distributes close to SEK 14 million to three ALS research projects. The research should contribute to better nursing, new medicines and precision medicines.

KI researcher Stefan Skare receives funding from Barncancerfonden (the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund) for the development of motion-robust MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) methods for examining awake children with brain and spinal cord tumors. The project receives a total of SEK 3.9 million over three years.

KI researcher Carl Sellgren has been awarded the Bjarne Ahlströms Minnesfonds pris 2023 (Bjarne Ahlström Memorial Fund Prize 2023) for his research in clinical neurology and how the loss of synapses (contacts between cells) in the brain could be a possible cause of schizophrenia.

The yearly StratNeuro retreat gathers neuroscience researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Umeå University, and the Royal Institute of Technology for a couple of days of networking and getting up to date with the latest research from across the spectrum of neuroscience topics aligning with the interests that the StratNeuro constellation represents. This year, our retreat took place on the 29th and 30th of May, at Djurönäset, in a picturesque location by the Stockholm archipelago.

Swedes with lower income and education were at greater risk of deteriorating mental health during the pandemic. This is shown in a study conducted by researchers from the University of Gothenburg in collaboration with Professor Mats Lekander at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience.

Thanks to the research conducted by Christian Rück and others there is currently research on all compulsive related disorders. He is now venturing into a perhaps even more difficult and important task: Suicide prevention.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric diagnosis that affects about 5-10% of the population. PTSD occurs as a result of experiencing – or witnessing – severe, life-threatening and traumatic events, such as abuse, war, accidents and mistreatment.