News archive

Minister for Health Care Acko Ankarberg Johansson and Minister for Older People and Social Security Anna Tenje recently visited BioClinicum at Karolinska Institutet to learn more about the current status of Alzheimer’s research. "We’re getting closer to being able to devise an effective treatment," says Bengt Winblad, professor at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, who hosted the visit.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Brain, reveals a connection between the protein DEK and early neuronal changes in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that lower DEK levels in vulnerable neurons lead to altered neuronal activity and Tau protein accumulation, offering insights into early-stage Alzheimer’s pathology and potential therapeutic targets.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have made exciting discoveries about Alzheimer's disease, a common form of dementia affecting millions of people around the world. In a study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, they have explored the potential of novel synaptic PET-tracer UCB-J as an important early diagnostic biomarker/tool for Alzheimer's disease.

Karolinska Institutet is one of 24 partners in AD-RIDDLE, a collaborative project that aims to increase healthcare providers' ability to diagnose, prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease. The project, supported by, among others, the EU's Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), started in January 2024 and will run for five years.

A new study published in Nature Communications gives insights into the underlying mechanisms of the formation of protein clumps in Alzheimer’s disease. The study, led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet, could pave the way for new treatments for this devastating neurodegenerative disorder.

Karolinska Institutet is part of the AD-RIDDLE consortium, a project dedicated to increasing health professional’s capabilities to detect, diagnose, prevent, and treat Alzheimer’s disease. Funded by the EU Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the project was launched in January 2024, includes 24 partners, and will run over five years.

A new study at the Karolinska Institutet suggests that activation of a certain brain protein can protect women from developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

Hi Mona-Lisa Malarte, doctoral student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics. Om January 26 you will defend your thesis ”Tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias : translational approach from in vitro autoradiography to in vivo PET imaging”. What is the main focus of the thesis?

Blood fat-lowering statins could slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, at least for some patients. This is the result of a new study led by Karolinska Institutet published in Alzheimer Research and Therapy. But the researchers are cautious in their interpretations and see the results as a first step in a research journey that may eventually provide the answer.

Dementia diseases cost Swedish society around SEK 80 billion per year. The EU has now awarded funding to the Prominent project, which aims to improve both diagnostics and treatment for these diseases. Karolinska Institutet is responsible for the project in the role of coordinator.

An early phase in the process of developing Alzheimer’s disease is a metabolic increase in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in Molecular Psychiatry. The discovery opens up for new potential methods of early intervention.

Hi Michael Axenhus, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics. On October 20 you will defend your thesis ”Characterization of proteins involved in disease progression in Alzheimer disease”, what is the main focus of the thesis?

The prize is awarded annually by the Swedish Society of Medicine (SLS) to a person who has made outstanding contributions to Alzheimer's research. This year the Bengt Winblad Prize is awarded to Laura Fratiglioni, Professor of Medical Epidemiology with a focus on dementia diseases at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet.

A new study shows that the activation of the brain's immune defense cells, astrocytes, in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, could be tracked early with a brain PET scanner, and is linked to changes that can be detected in the blood later in the course of the disease. The study has now been published in Molecular Neurodegeneration.

Hi Anders Rydström, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics. On September 8 you will defend your thesis ”Mental stimulation and multimodal trials to prevent cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease”, what is the main focus of the thesis?

Hi Jakob Norgren, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics. On June 12 you will defend your thesis ”The impact of macronutritional composition and ketosis on cognitive health : from normal aging to Alzheimer’s disease”, what is the main focus of the thesis?

Early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease requires reliable and cost-effective screening methods. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now discovered that a type of sugar molecule in blood is associated with the level of tau, a protein that plays a critical role in the development of severe dementia. The study, which is published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, can pave the way for a simple screening procedure able to predict onset ten years in advance.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most prominent cause of dementia affecting millions of people worldwide. As the changes in the brain function starts 10-20 years before the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s disease, there is a strong interest in the identification of early markers that can be predictive of future mental health/cognitive decline. This may be something that some KI researchers are on the lookout for. Their latest study is now published in Nature Reviews Neurology.

Hi Yang Gao, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics. On February 24 you will defend your thesis "Alzheimer Disease: Subcellular Aβ mechanisms and treatment strategies", what is the main focus of the thesis?

Being affected by several cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, is linked to a greatly increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A new twin study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet suggests that the same genes may be behind the risk of both cardiometabolic diseases and dementia. The findings have been published in European Heart Journal.

Proteins can make any inventor green with envy. It is proteins that make the body work. But when these same super-substances make mistakes, we may get sick with things like cancer or Alzheimer's disease. The job of researchers is to sort out the proteins when they malfunction.

Alzheimer disease begins decades before any symptoms, such as memory loss, start to show. Consequently, early diagnosis increases the chances of slowing the disease down with drugs. A new study on an inherited form of the disease shows that a protein called GFAP is a possible biomarker for very early stages of the disease. The study, conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Brain, could one day lead to an earlier detection of this serious and common disease.

Researchers from the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (Eriksdotter group) in collaboration with the Departments of MEB (Carrero group) and Clintec (Bruchfeld group) at KI have recently had their study published in Kidney International (IF 19). This paper is the first study linking activation of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathways to kidney damage in humans.

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.

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

Infections treated with specialty hospital care in early- and mid-life are associated with an increased subsequent risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, but not amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet, published in PLOS Medicine.

Using a novel 3D imaging technology, researchers at Karolinska Institutet, among others, have been able to comprehensively characterize a part of the brain that shows perhaps the earliest accumulation of tau protein, an important biomarker for the development of Alzheimer's disease. The results, published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, may make it possible in the future to have a more precise neuropathological diagnosis of the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum at a very early stage.

The Alzheimer's Association® will present seven awards at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference® (AAIC®) 2022, recognizing researchers for their varied expertise, noteworthy achievements and innovative contributions to the field of Alzheimer's and dementia science. Agneta Nordberg, Division of Clinical Geriatrics, received one of them.

Using proteomics and other advanced tools of molecular biology, an international team of researchers led by a group from Karolinska Institutet have found a novel way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease by blood analysis, with a potential to uncover the underlying cause of the disease and prevent its development.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab describe in a study published in Science how they have improved the ability of a protein to repair oxidative DNA damage and created a new protein function. Their innovative technique can lead to improved drugs for diseases involving oxidative stress, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and lung diseases, but the researchers believe it has even greater potential.

Mechanisms associated with a particular diabetes drug can also help to protect against Alzheimer’s disease, a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in Neurology reports. The results indicate that the drug’s target protein can be an interesting candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

On April 21, the 2nd Swedish Meeting for Alzheimer's Research was organized in Aula Medica by the Center for Alzheimer Research at NVS. In total, around 450 attendees participated, of which about 300 were researchers.

Hi Richeng Jiang, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics, NVS. On May 30 you will defend your thesis ”Interplay between autophagy and amyloid beta metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease”, what's the main focus of the thesis?

On April 21, H.M Queen Silvia visited Karolinska Institutet to participate in a conference focusing on research on Alzheimer's disease, dementia and aging.

Amit Kumar and Agneta Nordberg, at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics (Nordberg Translational Molecular Imaging Lab), are awarded a grant of USD 175,000 USD over a four-year period for the project ”Understanding the role of synaptic loss in degenerative proteinopathies”.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have compared how well different Alzheimer’s biomarkers predict the progression of the disease and its effect on the memory. They found that early accumulation of tau proteins in the brain as measured by PET scanner was more effective at predicting memory impairment than biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid or amyloid plaque in the brain. The results are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

A large study at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has found a link between ADHD and dementia across generations. The study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, shows that parents and grandparents of individuals with ADHD were at higher risk of dementia than those with children and grandchildren without ADHD.

Hi there, Ceren Emre, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics! On September 1 you will defend your thesis ”Resolving inflammation - analysis of mechanisms in relation to Alzheimer pathology and aging”. What is the main focus of your thesis?

This year, The Swedish Brain Foundation will distribute SEK 106 million in research grants. Karolinska Institutet is awarded 42% of these and includes seven researchers at the Department of Neurobiology, Health Sciences and Society (NVS) as recipients.

Center for Alzheimer Research (CAR) has started a working group on sex and gender differences in dementia. The group is led by Assistant professors Shireen Sindi and Daniel Ferreira at the Division for Clinical Geriatrics. It's their first working group and they are excited to see how this group will evolve.

Hi there, Ying Wang, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics! On June 23 you will defend your thesis “Neuroinflammation and its resolution in Alzheimer's disease". What is the main focus of your thesis?

Joana Pereira officially starts as research group leader today, June 1, although she has been managing her own group for a while now.

Hi there, Lorena Galán-Acosta, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics! On June 17 you will defend your thesis “Recombinant BRICHOS domains delivered over the blood-brain barrier : a possible way to treat Alzheimer's disease”. What is the main focus of your thesis?

Hi there, Konstantinos Poulakis, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics! On May 28 you will defend your thesis “Alzheimer’s disease heterogeneity assessment with MRI biomarkers and unsupervised statistical learning”. What is the main focus of your thesis?

New biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease are a priority area for researchers seeking to learn more about the disease and find possible methods of early diagnosis. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied a new PET tracer that is an important diagnostic tool for the disease. The study on the tracer substance BU99008, which is published in Molecular Psychiatry, can play a key part in the early identification of signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

Cholinesterase inhibitors are a group of drugs recommended for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, but their effects on cognition have been debated and few studies have investigated their long-term effects. A new study involving researchers from Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Neurology shows persisting cognitive benefits and reduced mortality for up to five years after diagnosis.

New professors Eric Westman and Dorota Religa, both Division of Clinical Geriatrics, head and deputy head of division respectively, gave their lectures as new professors at NVS on Wednesday January 20.

Hi Una Smailovic, PhD student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics! On January 15 you will defend your thesis “Multimodal phenotyping of synaptic damage in Alzheimer’s disease : translational perspective with focus on quantitative EEG”. What’s the main focus of the thesis?

The two used methods for detecting amyloid pathology in Alzheimer's disease give ambiguous results, with the risk of incorrect or delayed care interventions. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found genetic explanations for the differences. The study is published in Molecular Psychiatry and may be important for more individual diagnostics and the development of future drugs.

The award recognises Professor Kivipelto’s more than 20 years of research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia.