News archive

CIMED announces a planning grant for researchers at Campus Flemingsberg, active in basic and/or translational research with clinical relevance.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows how a small antibody fragment can block fertilisation by targeting a key protein on the surface of the egg. This discovery brings a non-hormonal contraceptive one step closer to reality. The study has been published in the journal PNAS.

Congratulations Mikael Rydén, who has been granted an extension as a Wallenberg Clinical Scholar. The extension entails SEK 3 million per year for five years.

Following a procurement process, KI is switching to a new security contract with the supplier CSG. The new contract is valid from Friday 10 January.

Get to know Hong Qian, Professor of Molecular Haematology at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) since 26 November 2024.

We congratulate the two researchers from the Department of Medicine, Huddinge who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation.

The location for incoming and outgoing post has been moved and there are new delivery points for packages in Neo.

Following a reorganisation of the recycling bins in the Neo lunchroom, the amount of residual waste has been halved. This means that less waste is incinerated and more is recycled.

Laura Covill from the Hematology Unit/HERM, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), is defending her thesis titled "Genetic and epigenetic diagnostics of viral susceptibility and inborn errors of immunity", on 29 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Yenan Bryceson (MedH).

Karin Belander Strålin from the Hematology Unit/HERM, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), is defending her thesis titled "Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell fate decisions during fetal development", on 29 November , 2024. Main supervisor is Sten Eirik W. Jacobsen (MedH).

Congratulations to Marie Löf at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, who has been awarded a grant from FORTE.

Marie Löf is awarded a project grant of SEK 4 995 000 for the project "En digital, samskapad intervention tillgänglig på olika språk för att förebygga graviditetsdiabetes (Di-Prev): en randomiserad kontrollerad studie".

We congratulate the eight researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2025-2029. Together, the MedH researchers are awarded grants of nearly SEK 30 million.

Tahmina Akhter from the Biosciences and Nutrition Unit at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, is defending her thesis titled "Classification of asthma with cross-cohort clinical data and with enhancer mediated gene regulation", on 15 November, 2024. Main supervisor is Carsten Daub (MedH).

In the Swedish Research Council's latest call, SEK 96 000 000 was awarded to 13 researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) for the years 2024-2029.

After the freezer failure in Neo, the Health and Social Care Inspectorate (IVO) opened a supervisory case. The case has now been closed and IVO considers that the investigations carried out and the measures taken by Karolinska Institutet are sufficient to fulfil the requirements of the Biobanks Act.

A decision was made by KI’s President on Tuesday regarding compensation for the freezer failure in Neo. The Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) will be compensated with a total of SEK 30 million to be distributed to the affected researchers for costs incurred, and to begin recreating the collection of research material that has been lost.

The external review of the previous internal investigation into the freezer failure in Neo during the Christmas holidays 2023, supports the conclusions and recommendations of the internal report. This was clear when the external investigation was presented to KI's management and affected staff on 20 August.

At the beginning of July, Johan Fridell started as Financial controller at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH).

On 12 April, the internal investigation into the freezer failure during the Christmas holidays in 2023 was presented in the Neo building at Karolinska Institutet. The investigation has been led by KI's head of security and it points to clear technical as well as organisational shortcomings. Taken together, a chain of these shortcomings caused the breakdown that led to the destruction of research material and the loss of years of research work. The inquiry recommends a number of measures.

Anna Beskow, head of Uppsala Biobank at Uppsala University, will be chairing the external group that will be reviewing the investigative team’s report and conclusions concerning the freezer failure at Neo. The external review group, which comprises four independent experts, will present its report to KI president Annika Östman Wernerson.

During the Christmas holidays, a freezer failure occurred in the Neo building on KI's Flemingsberg campus. The automatic filling of the cryotanks with liquid nitrogen was interrupted for an unknown reason. As a result, the temperature in 16 of 19 cryogenic tanks rose and large amounts of biological research material have been destroyed. An investigation with internal and external experts is now underway to find out how this failure could have happened.

Giovanna Perinetti Casoni from the hematology unit, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), is defending her thesis "Regulation of cytotoxic lymphocyte effector functions" on 1 December 2023. Main supervisor is Yenan Bryceson (MedH).

Katharina Susek from the Hematology unit, at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH), is defending her thesis "Strategies to optimize natural killer cell functions in the tumor microenvironment" on 24 November 2023. Evren Alici is the main supervisor (MedH).

We congratulate the ten researchers at MedH who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2024-2026. Together, the MedH researchers are awarded grants of just over SEK 33 million.

In the Swedish Research Council's latest call, SEK 69 000 000 was awarded to 12 researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) for the years 2023-2028.

A researcher at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, has received SEK 4.97 million in research grants from FORTE for a project on “A mHealth intervention to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours from the start of life: The Health4Life trial”.

Maria Creignou from the Hematology Unit (HERM) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending her thesis: "Improving prognostication for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes" on 27 October 2023. Main supervisor is Professor Eva Hellström Lindberg (MedH).

A study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and physicians from Karolinska Hospital shows that a capsule of connective tissue around liver metastases from colorectal cancer improves patient survival and represents a healing response by the liver, not a phenomenon caused by the tumor itself.

Maria Karvouni from the Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending her thesis: "Cellular and personalized therapies in Multiple Myeloma with special emphasis on retargeted NK cells" 16 June 2023. Main supervisor is Evren Alici (MedH).

A new study demonstrates that the dietary fatty acid gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) derived from the mother's milk triggers a metabolic shift essential for heart cell maturation in newborn mice. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet contributed to the study published in Nature in May 2023.

While the relevance for human heart development still needs to be addressed, GLA is found in human breast milk and the GLA-activated nuclear receptors are highly conserved between mice and humans.

Immunotherapy has been shown to greatly improve survival rates for certain types of cancer. However, in some cases, it can lead to an over-activation of the immune system, which can be dangerous. In a recent review by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, potential therapies have been identified, which might make it possible to continue with immunotherapy even when facing severe side effects.

Aristeidis Grigoriadis, from the Gastroenterology and Rheumatology Unit at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) will defend his thesis "Magnetic resonance imaging as a tool for diagnosis, evaluation and prognosis in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis" on February 17, 2023. Main Supervisor is Annika Bergquist (MedH).

On December 16, 2022, the KI president inaugurated the Centre for Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet. More than 150 people attended the event with representatives from the funding agencies present; the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation and Formas.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital and Cellevate AB, have received almost 5 million SEK from Vinnova, to investigate how stem cells interact with their environment. The goal is to develop more effective production of stem cell therapies, and eventually contribute to better treatment of public diseases such as heart failure and diabetes.

Nine researchers from the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) are awarded a total of SEK 29 100 000 from The Swedish cancer society - Cancerfonden. Congratulations to:

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have reported new insights on how copper ions inhibit the aggregation of the amyloid-β peptide implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. The study published in JACS Au presents molecular structures of this complex, which provide a general understanding of the impact metal ions have.

In the Swedish Research Council's latest call, SEK 91 558 000 was awarded to 15 researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) for the years 2022–2027. Congratulations to:

65 researchers at Karolinska Institutet received KID-funding in the call 2022, and four of these are active researchers at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH).

65 researchers at Karolinska Institutet received KID-funding in the call 2022 and five of these are active researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition.

Karolinska Institutet hosted the annual meeting with the Swedish national Network in Epidemiology and Nutrition (NEON). The theme for this year’s meeting was: ”Digital lifestyle interventions and BigData in nutritional research”. Around a hundred researchers and practitioners in nutrition and epidemiology from all over Sweden met in Flemingsberg.

Marie Löf, at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, is a new Professor in Nutrition as of February 1st, 2022. Yesterday, October 13th, 2022, the inauguration of new professors at Karolinska Institutet took place with an installation ceremony in Aula Medica.

Professor Martin Bergö is re-appointed Academic Vice President for Research as well as Chairperson of the Committee for Research at Karolinska Institutet. On October 4th the president of Karolinska Institutet, Ole Petter Ottersen, appointed the academic vice presidents and deputy chairpersons for the three committees that report to the Faculty Board.

The two-day conference, Collaboration in Science 2022, is held on 6 and 7 October at KI’s Campus Flemingsberg. During the conference, participants will learn about the extensive research being conducted at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

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

A researcher from the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, has received a career supporting grant from the Alzheimer's Association.

Three researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutriton, Karolinska Institutet, have received grants from the Novo Nordisk Foundation for their research, 2022.

Centre for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics arranges a networking event for researchers within bioinformatics and biostatistics Friday October 7th from 12 pm to 6 pm. The event takes place right after the conference Collaboration in Science 2022 and will be held in Neo building at Campus Flemingsberg. Register before September 9th!

A researcher at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, has received USD 200 000 for a project aiming to assess the effect of partial re-programming by the transient expression of the Yamanaka factors to rejuvenate the immune system to extend lifespan and health span.

Congratulations!
Five researchers active at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, have received grants from the Swedish Research Council.

Seventy researchers at Karolinska Institutet received KID-funding in the 2021 call and eight of them are active researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, something that the Head of the Department sees as a much appreciated verification of the high quality of both the established and the new researchers at the department.