News archive

StratNeuro has awarded SEK 1,000,000 in start-up grant to Kristoffer Månsson, who was granted a 2020 faculty-funded Assistant Professor (biträdande lektor) position.

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.

A large brain imaging study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet demonstrates that same-sex sexual behaviour-related differences in the brain exist. Patterns in the brain that differentiate between men and women were less pronounced in non-heterosexual individuals, and some of the brain differences could be linked to a genetic predisposition for non-heterosexuality. The study is published in the scientific journal Human Brain Mapping.

The StratNeuro board has reviewed the neuroscience submissions to the SLL call “kliniska forskare” (2020) and decided to support the two researchers at Karolinska Institutet with SEK 500,000 each.

StratNeuro has awarded SEK 1,000,000 in start-up grant to Maya Ketzef receiving a 2020 VR 'starting grant and Sara Garcia-Ptacek receiving a 2020 faculty-funded Assistant Professor position.

Individuals with high ADHD-traits that do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis are less able to perform tasks involving attentional regulation or emotional control after a sleepless night than individuals with low ADHD-traits, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging reports.

Researchers at KI have received SEK 36,800,000 from the Swedish Research Council’s consolidator grant 2020. In total, SEK 217 million was distributed to 20 universities.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have studied the incidence and regional distribution of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers in the brains of people with Down’s syndrome. The results can bring new possibilities for earlier diagnosis and preventive treatment of dementia. The study is published in Molecular Neurodegeneration.

People with autism spectrum disorder have lower levels of a protein that regulates the amount of serotonin in the brain, a paper from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry reports. For their study, the researchers used a molecular brain imaging technique to compare people with and without autism; their results offer hope of finding a drug that can alleviate the symptoms.

Three researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded the 2020 ERC Starting Grant: Niklas Björkström, Janina Seubert and Nils Landegren. Their projects concern resident organ-specific immune cells, the cognitive mechanisms behind our preference of certain foods, and sex-differences in the human immune system and the risk of autoimmune disease. In all, the European Research Council will support 436 early-career researchers with this prestigious grant.

Karolinska Institutet and St. Erik Eye Hospital have entered into a collaboration with Novo Nordisk A/S to develop a new treatment for age-related macular degeneration. Novo Nordisk A/S will provide support and SEK 48 million in funding to enable a phase 1 clinical trial where new retinal cells generated from embryonic stem cells will be transplanted into patients. The aim is to develop a completely new cell therapy for this common but currently incurable eye disease.

Being socially active generally increases your chances of getting a good night’s sleep. But if you are active late into the evening, it reduces the number of hours you sleep – and can also affect your social life. This is according to a new study from Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have imaged tau protein in the brains of living patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The amount and spread of tau proved a predictor of future memory loss. Brain imaging for measuring tau can be useful both for improving diagnosis and for developing more effective treatments, say the researchers. The study is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

The StratNeuro board has reviewed the neuroscience submissions to the SLL call “högre kliniska forskare” (2019 and 2020) and decided to support the following researchers with SEK 500,000 each.

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now report that they have identified a key target for the drug: specific serotonin receptors in the brain. Their findings, which are published in Translational Psychiatry, give hope of new, effective antidepressants.

Childhood environment and socioeconomic status affect cognitive ability and brain development during adolescence independently of genetic factors, researchers at Karolinska Institutet report in a new study published in the journal PNAS. The study demonstrates how important the family environment is, not just during early infancy but also throughout adolescence.

An international team of scientists led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has launched a comprehensive overview of all proteins expressed in the brain, published in the journal Science. The open-access database offers medical researchers an unprecedented resource to deepen their understanding of neurobiology and develop new, more effective therapies and diagnostics targeting psychiatric and neurological diseases.

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.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed an online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) programme for the difficult-to-treat pain syndrome fibromyalgia. In her doctoral thesis, Maria Hedman-Lagerlöf shows that patients who receive the treatment experience fewer symptoms and enjoy better quality of life.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method to separate between two different types of a common herpes virus (HHV-6) that has been linked to multiple sclerosis. By analyzing antibodies in the blood against the most divergent proteins of herpesvirus 6A and 6B, the researchers were able to show that MS-patients carry the herpesvirus 6A to a greater extent than healthy individuals. The findings, published in Frontiers in Immunology, point to a role for HHV-6A in MS development.

Those with a family history of schizophrenia and men with lower IQ are more likely to struggle with treatment resistant schizophrenia than others with the mental disorder, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. The researchers say the findings could be important in efforts to design novel drug treatments that improve cognition.

Children who suffer mild brain injury due to oxygen deprivation at birth normally do not receive cooling therapy to reduce the risk of permanent damage. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and University College Cork report that these children have significantly impaired cognitive outcomes at 2-3 years of age and therefore should be included in future clinical trials of neuroprotective therapies. The study is published in JAMA Pediatrics.

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who also have depression are more likely to suffer debilitating symptoms early than people with MS who are not depressed, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden that is published in the journal Neurology. The findings highlight the need for early recognition and treatment of depressive symptoms in patients with MS.

Correction: The article “Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study,” published in The American Journal of Psychiatry on Oct. 4, 2019, has been corrected following a review of the statistical methodology and some of its conclusions.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have taken part in the largest study to date on the genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS). The study, which is published today in the journal Science, corroborates earlier studies and provides new clues as to what causes this neurological disease. The resulting map will prove a vital resource for future researchers and could one day lead to new, more potent drugs.

The timing of anemia—a common condition in late pregnancy—can make a big difference for the developing fetus, according to research at Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Psychiatry. The researchers found a link between early anemia and increased risk of autism, ADHD and intellectual disability in the child. Anemia discovered toward the end of pregnancy did not have the same correlation. The findings underscore the importance of early screening for iron status and nutritional counselling.

It appears that when our nervous system is developing, only the most viable neurons survive, while immature neurons are weeded out and die. This is shown in a ground-breaking discovery by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The results indicate that the long-standing neurotrophic theory, which states that chance determines which cells will form the nervous system, needs to be revised.

Memories of events, episodic memory, is better amongst women compared to men, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found in a new overview published in the scientific journal Psychological Bulletin. However, results vary depending on what is to be remembered.

Learning what is dangerous by watching a video or being told (known as social learning) has just as strong an effect on our decision-making as first-hand experience of danger, researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report. The results of the study, which is published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), can help to explain why we take irrational decisions.

What happens in the brain when we see other people experiencing a trauma or being subjected to pain? Well, the same regions that are involved when we feel pain ourselves are also activated when we observe other people who appear to be going through some painful experience. This is shown in a study from Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Communications. But we are sensitive to different degrees to learning fear from other people and one explanation would appear to be found in the endogenou

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet collaborating in the large-scale Karolinska Schizophrenia Project are taking an integrative approach to unravel the disease mechanisms of schizophrenia. In the very first results now presented in the prestigious scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry, the researchers show that patients with schizophrenia have lower levels of the vital neurotransmitter GABA as well as changes in the brain’s immune cells.