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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.