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A new study from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that many people with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 demonstrate so-called T-cell-mediated immunity to the new coronavirus, even if they have not tested positively for antibodies. According to the researchers, this means that public immunity is probably higher than antibody tests suggest. The article has been published in the esteemed scientific journal Cell. [This news article has been updated]

By conducting advanced analyses of immune system activation in patients with severe COVID-19, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to identify several cell types that play a key part in the immune response to the new coronavirus and the hyperinflammation seen in severe cases of the disease. The results are published in the scientific journal Cell Reports Medicine.

Immunologist Qiang Pan Hammarström has worked every day since late January to find medicines against the new coronavirus. With her husband and KI-colleague Lennart Hammarström, she coordinates an international research consortium that is working on three tracks to develop treatments against COVID-19.

The coronavirus pandemic has shaken all our lives—and researchers around the world are working hard to find solutions to the crisis. Gerald McInerney, Associate Professor of Virology at Karolinska Institutet, focuses on developing antibodies that can block the virus’ ability to infect cells, so-called neutralizing antibodies.

Thomas Helleday’s research group has been awarded a prestigious grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for the sixth time. The latest ERC Proof of Concept Grant is aimed at the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs for lung diseases such as fibrosis.

People with celiac disease have increased risk of dying prematurely, despite increased awareness of the disease in recent years and better access to gluten-free food. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Columbia University in the U.S. published in the prestigious journal JAMA. Celiac disease was linked to increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer and respiratory disease.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and St Erik Eye Hospital in Sweden have discovered a way to refine the production of retinal cells from embryonic stem cells for treating blindness in the elderly. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, they have also managed to modify the cells so that they can hide from the immune system to prevent rejection. The studies are published in the scientific journals Nature Communications and Stem Cell Reports.

Petter Brodin, researcher in immunology at Karolinska Institutet is awarded the prestigious Göran Gustafsson Prize in medicine for his “pioneering analysis of the early development of the human immune system”.

People who have been treated in intensive care commonly suffer from residual cognitive impairment, but the reason for this is unknown. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now link cognitive impairment with lasting inflammation and a potential treatment target. The results are presented in the scientific journal Intensive Care Medicine.

Professor Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam was elected member of the Academy's Class for medical sciences on 15 January 2020.

A clinical phase I study led by the Public Health Agency of Sweden and researchers from Karolinska Institutet shows that a new vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough) given as drops into the nose is more efficacious than the current vaccine. The results of the study are presented in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The vaccine will now be evaluated in a larger phase II clinical trial.

Endogenous proteins that play a vital part in allergies and parasitic infection can prevent the immune system from wrongly attacking the body and causing inflamed joints, a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the scientific journal PNAS reports. The researchers hope that the results will give rise to new drugs for rheumatoid arthritis.

Researchers at SciLifeLab report in the journal Science that they have created a detailed blood atlas of the proteins in human immune cells. The open-access database offers medical researchers an unprecedented resource in the search for treatments for diseases.

Four researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been granted a total of SEK 28 million in additional funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW). Two of these researchers are also promoted from Wallenberg Academy Fellows (WAF) to Wallenberg Scholars.

Myriam Aouadi and Camilla Svensson have been awarded the European Research Council’s Consolidator grant 2019 for research on the role of macrophages in liver disease and how autoantibodies contribute to chronic pain, respectively.

Six of the 29 new Wallenberg Academy Fellows appointed in 2019 will conduct their groundbreaking research at Karolinska Institutet. The five-year grant is financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to provide the young and talented researcher leaders with long-term research funding in Sweden.

Recently discovered immune cells called MAIT cells play a key role in group A streptococcal toxic shock, researchers at Karolinska Institutet report. The results, which are published in the journal PNAS, have potential implications for the diagnosis and treatment of this life-threatening condition.

A type of immune cell called neutrophils could be responsible for controlling bacterial numbers of an antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) on human skin before the bacteria get a chance to invade, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Cell Reports. The results could provide an explanation for why this superbug is only carried transiently by some people.

Four research projects at Karolinska Institutet receive funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) in the project call of 2019. In all, researchers at KI are awarded close to SEK 135 million over a five-year period for studies into MS, mitochondrial disease, and vaccine against rheumatism.

A new way of producing nanoparticles that can function as carriers in so-called mRNA vaccines has been developed by researchers at the Hong Kong node of Karolinska Institutet – the Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine – and the MIT, USA. Using the method, which is described in the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers have identified a new class of carrier molecules that inhibit tumour growth and prolong survival in mouse models of cancer.

Antibodies present in the blood years before development of painful chronic joint inflammation may cause early changes in the synovial tissue and bones, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The findings could pave the way for new methods of preventing development of the disease.

Three researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded the ERC Starting Grant 2019: Jenny Mjösberg, Maria Genander, and newly recruited Pia Dosenovic. Their projects concern inflammatory bowel disease, esophageal cancers, and HIV vaccine, respectively. In all, the ERC will support 408 early-career researchers from around the world with its prestigious starting grant this year.

Cytokines are a type of proteins that are important to the signaling between cells in the body's immune system, for example in the case of an infection or injury. A new study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, by researchers researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University, is now indicating that the cytokine interleukin(IL)-26 could be used as a biological marker (biomarker) for uncontrolled asthma in both adults and children.

The picture above shows a tuberculosis (TB) infection in a mouse lung, in which immune cells form a granuloma around the bacteria. The different symbols represent working copies of active genes, called messenger RNA, which are different in the granuloma centre in comparison to the surrounding cells.

Three researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been appointed Wallenberg Scholar in 2019: Ernest Arenas, Sten Linnarsson, and Randal S. Johnson. The researchers – among the foremost in their field in Sweden – receive SEK 18 million each from the Wallenberg Foundations in the form of a five-year grant for free research.

Even premature babies carry anti-viral antibodies transferred from the mother, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report in a paper on maternal antibodies in newborns, published in the journal Nature Medicine. The results should change our approach to infection sensitivity in newborns, they say.

Professor Sven-Erik Dahlén, IMM, participates in the co-ordination team of the IMI project 3TR that was recently approved for funding by the European Commission.

Subpopulations of oligodendrocytes, myelin-producing cells in the brain that are targeted by the immune system in multiple sclerosis (MS), are altered in MS and might therefore have additional roles in the disease than previously described. The results are published in the journal Nature, in a study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and University of Edinburgh in the UK.

A new study shows that there is a very limited regeneration of cells in the brain of patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). These findings underline the importance of treating MS at an early stage of the disease progression, when the affected cells can repair the damage as they are not replaced by new ones. The results are published in the journal Nature by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University.

Pneumococci are the most common cause of respiratory tract infections, such as otitis and sinusitis, as well as of severe infections like pneumonia and meningitis. A new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Microbiology shows how the bacteria can inhibit immune cell reaction and survive inside cells to give rise to pneumonia.

As soon as a baby is born, its immune system starts to change dramatically in response to the bacteria, viruses and so forth in its new environment, a phenomenon that is common to all babies, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden write in a paper published in Cell. The study was made possible using new techniques of immune cell analysis.

Failure to generate neutrophils in the bone marrow leads to devastating bacterial and fungal infections. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new pathway to elevate the number of tissue neutrophils by activating the cell cytoskeleton. The study is published in Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam at MTC has been awarded the ERC Advanced Grant (AdG) 2017 from the European Research Council.

Children with asthma have epigenetic DNA changes in certain cells of their immune system, a major international study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows. The finding, which is presented in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, can one day lead to improved diagnostics and treatment.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows that the same mechanisms behind the beneficial effects of exercise training on the brain also help to counteract fat and to strengthen the immune system. The results, which are published in the journal Cell Metabolism, can ultimately give rise to new obesity and diabetes drugs.