News archive

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have come one step closer toward understanding how the part of our brain that is central for decision-making and the development of addiction is organized on a molecular level. In mouse models and with methods used for mapping cell types and brain tissue, the researchers were able to visualize the organization of different opioid-islands in striatum. Their spatiomolecular map, now in Cell Reports, may further our understanding of the brain’s reward-system.

The search for a cure to AIDS has partly focused on ways to eradicate infected cells. Now, new research from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. shows that this approach may not be necessary for a functional cure. In a study focusing on a subset of HIV-positive individuals who can live with the virus without needing treatment, the researchers found that these people’s lymphocytes suppress the virus but do not kill off infected cells.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method for identifying which proteins are affected by specific drugs. The tool and the results it has already generated have been made freely available online. The method is described in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

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.

Researchers have long known that some genes can cause cancer when overactive, but exactly what happens inside the cell nucleus when the cancer grows has so far remained enigmatic. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found a new mechanism that renders one canonical driver of cancer overactive. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, create conditions for brand new strategies to fight cancer.

Twelve researchers at Karolinska Institutet qualify for the annual list of highly cited researchers compiled by Web of Science.

Progeria is a very rare disease that affects about one in 18 million children and results in premature aging and death in adolescence from complications of cardiovascular disease. In a study on mice and human cells, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and IFOM, the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology in Italy, have identified how antisense oligonucleotide therapies could be used as a new possible treatment option for the disease. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new research tool for studying how mitochondrial protein synthesis is affected by disease, pharmaceuticals, ageing and different physiological situations such as exercise and diet. The study is presented in the scientific journal Cell Reports.

People with atopic eczema have many more Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in their skin than those with healthy skin or psoriasis, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland. The study, published in the Nature Communications, shows how the S. aureus bacteria displaced other potentially health-promoting bacteria. The discovery may be important for future treatments of the skin disease.

Two research projects at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded synergy grants from the European Research Council (ERC). In total, the researchers and their international partners were awarded about EUR 19 million (SEK 209 million) over a six-year period for studies that aim to widen our understanding of disease-causing fat cells and unlock new cancer treatments.

Altogether SEK 170 million. This is this year's allocation from the European Commission under the funding programme for health in Horizon2020. A total of 20 research projects at Karolinska Institutet are being supported, three of them also coordinated from here: a survey of what we are exposed to in the environment; mapping of the brain's different nerve cells; and a project to bring down the mortality rate in childbirth in four African countries.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have uncovered a chromosome-wide mechanism that keeps the gene expression of sex chromosomes in balance in our cells. The findings shed light on molecular reasons for early miscarriage and could be important for the emerging field of regenerative medicine. The study is published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

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.

People – or more specifically just Swedes – are more like chimpanzees than previously known. This is indicated in a genetic mapping of one thousand Swedish individuals, where new DNA sequences that should be included in the reference genome have been identified. The study is published in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have, together with colleagues from Aalto University in Finland, developed a new method for creating images of molecules in cells or tissue samples. The method is based on the use of DNA snippets and is called DNA microscopy. The approach is currently described in the scientific journal PNAS.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new sensory receptor organ that is able to detect painful mechanical damage, such as pricks and impacts. The discovery is being published in the scientific journal Science.

Sten Linnarsson, professor of molecular systems biology at Karolinska Institutet, is trying to understand the development of the human brain. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is now giving him this year’s Torsten Söderberg Academy Professorial Chair in Medicine for his work in achieving a detailed map of the human brain. The grant consists of SEK ten million over a five-year period.

Cells exposed to cancer-driving mutations respond by triggering a stress reaction called cellular senescence, which halts cell proliferation and thereby constitutes the major protective barrier to cancer. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now discovered a previously unknown signaling pathway that controls cellular senescence in breast cancer.

Subtle changes in protein composition by a process called ‘citrullination’ are thought to be involved in causing several diseases, including multiple sclerosis. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet now show in the journal Cell Reports that the enzyme PAD2, the main protein responsible for this process in the brain, also plays an important role in the normal development of a subset of brain cells, known as oligodendrocytes, and in their function in stimulating neuronal communication.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet present a publicly available resource that can accelerate the use of so-called FISH techniques for studying how the genome is spatially organised in the cell nucleus. The new platform, which enables more cost-effective analyses for both research and diagnostic labs, is described in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

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.

Knowledge of a newly discovered genetic disorder, which means that a person cannot produce the protein TXNIP (thioredoxin interacting protein) in their cells, can open for the development of new diabetes drugs. This is shown in a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Diabetes.

New research on how cancer mutations influence a certain type of receptor on the cell membrane opens the way for the development of tailored drugs for certain cancers, such as rectal cancer and lung cancer.

Acute porphyria is a group of uncommon diseases that can cause severe, potentially life-threatening attacks of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and paralysis. Liver transplantation is currently the only effective treatment available for the most seriously afflicted patients. A clinical trial conducted in collaboration with researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now shows that a new drug candidate can prevent attacks in these patients. The study is published in The New England Journal of

For reasons that are unclear, schizophrenia patients have fewer connections between the neurons in the brain. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, have now succeeded in creating human cell models that show that there is an excessive degradation of connections in the brain of these patients, and they have been able to link this to a genetic risk variant for the disease.

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.

There is a large, untapped potential for developing drugs against cancer, fibrosis and cardiovascular diseases by targeting a family of receptors known as Frizzleds, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden believe. In a new study published in Science Signaling, they identify how these receptors are activated in the cell membrane and the processes that are then triggered within the cell.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the University of Sussex have discovered that the process of copying DNA generates a brake signal that stalls cell division. This molecular brake ensures that the cell has two complete copies of DNA before it divides and thus prevents DNA damage and cancer development. The study is published in the scientific journal Molecular Cell.

Researchers from the global Human Cell Atlas Consortium report that they have sequenced a quarter of a million separate cells that are of importance for early development of organs such as the liver, skin and kidneys. Sten Linnarsson at Karolinska Institutet is participating in the project.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for work dedicated to the connection between celestial body movements and molecular fluctuations in our cells. Or, in simpler terms, to our internal biological clocks, also known as our circadian rhythm.

A new study, in which researchers at Karolinska Institutet participated, has found that in mice adjusting levels of a compound called kynurenic acid can have significant effects on schizophrenia-like behavior. The study is published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.