News archive

A study shows that people with higher levels of the protein albumin in their urine are at increased risk of developing dementia. The study, led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, is published in the scientific journal Journal of Internal Medicine.

Karolinska Institutet now has its own institutional repository for the dissemination and long-term preservation of research data – the KI Data Repository. The Data Access Unit at the University Library is the support function that manages and provides support in matters concerning the use of the service.

On September 18, the National Board of Health and Welfare published the official cause of death statistics for 2024. The National centre for suicide research and prevention (NASP) at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm has now analyzed and compiled data on suicides in Sweden.

When the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) selected the research leaders of the future three years ago as part of the prestigious programme ‘Future Research Leaders’ (FFL), KI researcher Arvid Guterstam was one of the 16 selected. The award offers researchers the opportunity to further develop their research with a grant of SEK 15 million over a five-year period. Halfway through the programme, Arvid Guterstam talks here about his results within the framework of the programme.

On 8–9 September 2025, the Aging Research Center (ARC) at Karolinska Institutet welcomed researchers from across Europe for an international workshop focused on advanced statistical techniques for tracking the evolution of multimorbidity.

Emma Johansson, Senior Consultant and Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet, has been awarded the Ellis and Ivar Janzon Prize 2025 by the Swedish Society of Medicine. The prize recognizes scientific excellence in the fields of dermatology and venereology and will be presented at the society’s annual ceremony on 21 October 2025.

RNA is central to how cells function. Through the detailed study of RNA that combines molecular biology with advanced bioinformatics, Vicente Pelechano Garcia hopes to contribute to the development of a new generation of RNA-based treatment and diagnosis. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October. 

Firearm injuries have increased significantly in Sweden over the past decade, and with them the need for medical understanding about how best to treat these injuries. In a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet, Karolina Nyberger, doctoral student at the Vascular Surgery group at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, examines the injury pattern in gun violence, with a particular focus on bleeding and vascular injuries.

KI, together with Stockholm University and KTH, offers two awards of 30,000 SEK each for lab visits or joint projects to strengthen research collaboration with the University of Tokyo in Japan.

During the ongoing Preparedness Week (Beredskapsveckan), the importance of being ready for crises is highlighted. When infectious diseases spread rapidly, it takes more than medical expertise and knowledge – it also requires the ability to collaborate under pressure. Hedvig Glans, expert coordinator at the Centre for Health Crises, recently participated in an international exercise focused on exactly this.

Apply for KI collaboration awards for doctoral students in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, University College London (UCL), Imperial College London or King’s College London, 2025/2026.

The salary review for 2025 is now underway and dialogues are ongoing in various forums within the organisation. The University Management has discussed the annual salary statistics and information about the recruitment situation, which shows that KI has a relatively low salary for Postdocs and Assistant professors compared to other higher education institutions.

Dr M. Madan Babu, this year's Ulf von Euler lecturer, wants to understand how cells control and regulate their various functions. Through his research, he aims to reveal why certain diseases arise when the regulation in cells does not function as it should. Dr Babu works at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, USA.

Jutta Jalkanen from the Center for Reproduction, Metabolism and Molecular medicine (CeRM), at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) defends her thesis titled "Unveiling Human White Adipose Tissue Diversity at Single-Cell Resolution", on 26 September, 2025. Main supervisor is Mikael Rydén (MedH).

The greatest challenge facing current treatments of leukaemia is drug resistance. Hong Qian studies the microenvironment where the cancer cells are formed with the aim to find new treatment pathways. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October.

Adolescent mental health took the spotlight at Karolinska Institutet earlier this month, where global experts, youth leaders, and policymakers gathered to launch the second Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. The event highlighted the urgent need for cross-sector collaboration and youth engagement to address the growing challenges facing adolescents today.

During a webinar on 17 September, the university management presented the principles of the proposed new model and answered questions.

Lazare Ntirenganya successfully passed his ISP review at Karolinska Institutet on 17 September. With a background in pharmacy and public health methodology, his doctoral research focuses on drug safety and interactions in the treatment of parasitic infections among school-aged children in Rwanda. Building on years of experience from the PROFORMA project, his work aims to improve the effectiveness and safety of mass drug administration programs.

Hi Magdalena Fresk, doctoral student at the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care . On October 10 you will defend your thesis ”International classification of functioning, disability and health in the sickness certification process” What is the main focus of the thesis?

Karolinska Institutet is recruiting three Assistant Professors in two programs tied to SciLifeLab. SciLifeLab and DDLS Fellows (Assistant Professors) are six-year positions with generous recruitment packages. The successful candidates are employed by Karolinska Institutet and affiliated with SciLifeLab. Deadline for applications is November 15th, 2025.

This fall, University Alliance Stockholm Trio is organising webinars on ethics, where the first is about self-plagiarism and the second about authorship dilemmas.

Two new framework agreements for gas will start on October 1 and will be visible in the agreement catalog from that date. One framework agreement is already valid since February.

Faisal Alagrafi from the Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine (HERM) at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) defends his thesis titled "The Role of gamma delta T Cells in Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Malignancies", on 26 September, 2025. Main supervisor is Michael Uhlin (MedH).

Inflammatory bowel disease affects millions of people worldwide and currently lacks a cure. Eduardo Villablanca studies how inflammation starts and heals in the intestines, with the aim to find new treatment methods. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October.

Researchers have conducted the most extensive study to date on adults who have never had sexual intercourse. The findings, published in PNAS, suggest that lifelong sexlessness is associated with a multifaceted interplay of psychological, social, and genetic factors.

With the new KI RIMS report Biosketch, KI researchers can quickly produce a summary with a photo and short biography based on their profile page. The need for a uniform and easily accessible short CV has been highlighted by the International Relations Office, which often shares researcher profiles in connection with international visits and collaborations. The hope is that the biosketch report will simplify the work of both researchers and international coordinators.

KI RIMS, KI's research information system, now contains two reports designed to make it easier to find researchers at a certain academic level within a specific subject area. The first is the report "Degrees of Licentiate/Doctor", which lists all active researchers at KI who have completed a doctoral or licentiate degree. The second is the previously available docent report, which has now been expanded to include professors and is called "Docents and Professors at KI".

Over 70 employees and students from Karolinska Institutet participated in this year's international conference for health and medical education, AMEE 2025, which was held in Barcelona. The conference brought together over 4,000 participants from around the world and offered both future outlooks and important discussions on the role of education in a rapidly changing healthcare.

Social Affairs and Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed recently visited Karolinska Institutet to attend an international seminar arranged to mark the launch of “A call to action for adolescents mental health and wellbeing”, the second report from the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing.

Everything we perceive is the result of neuronal activity in our brains. Daniel Lundqvist uses advanced brain imaging techniques to study the mind. His goal: to help improve the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October. 

A Swedish-led research team at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital has shown in a new randomized clinical trial that a low dose of the well-known medicine aspirin halves the risk of recurrence after surgery in patients with colon and rectal cancer with a certain type of genetic alteration in the tumor.

Musical people find it easier to focus their attention on the right sounds in noisy environments. This is shown in a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Science Advances. The results suggest that music training can be used to sharpen attention and cognition.

This autumn, we’re welcoming the first group of students to our new two-year Master’s Programme in Global Health. This vibrant group of 40 students come from over 20 countries, spanning almost all continents, and a range of backgrounds—law, political science, anthropology, public affairs, medicine, public health, nursing, and more.

The Department of Global Public Health hosted the annual Welcome Day for new students on Wednesday 3 September.

The prestigious European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP) Tripartite Congress, held in Paris from September 10–12, recognized Professor Anna Martling with the Best Scientific Paper Award.

The decision to have a child or not should belong to individuals, not to pollution in their environment, argues Pauliina Damdimopoulou, who studies how the chemicals in our environment affect the ovaries and the egg cells they contain. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October.

The NeurotechEU is gearing up for its annual hackathon!

Märit Halmin is an intensive care physician and researcher in the research group for Global Disaster Medicine – health needs and interventions at GPH. This summer, she worked at a field hospital in Al-Mawasi, Gaza – an area declared a humanitarian zone but where bombs fell around the clock. For five weeks, she treated seriously injured children and adults. In tents without running water and with a lack of pain relief, every medical intervention became a battle against time and resources.

After two years based at Makerere University in Uganda, Stefan Swartling Peterson has returned to KI with new perspectives on health systems under pressure — from maternal health to the rise of non-communicable diseases and climate-related challenges. Through CESH, the work continues with strengthened collaborations in Kampala.

Meet one of our PhD students at the Department, Joseph Junior Muwonge, in the EPiCSS research group, whose work focuses on improving access to mental healthcare in Sweden. In this interview, he shares what drew him to KI, key findings from his research on socioeconomic and migrant-related disparities, and reflections on his PhD journey so far.

Over 1,300 women are still dying of breast cancer in Sweden every year. Theodoros Foukakis is trying to understand the tumour properties that determine the success of a particular treatment in order to achieve greater therapeutic precision. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October.

Many students were present on the first day of the semester, September 1.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Communications, reveals that cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) promote DNA replication licensing in human cells by relieving inhibitory signals from RB tumor suppressor proteins. The findings add a new layer to our understanding of how cancer drugs work and may lead to better targeted cancer therapies in the future.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and Northwestern University have identified a new way to protect the kidney’s blood vessels and reduce tissue damage in chronic kidney disease. The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

On September 2, we held a kick-off for the Doctoral School in Health Sciences (FiH) with 14 doctoral students, including eight from NVS and the rest from six other departments.

In this newsletter we summarise decisions and ongoing processes regarding research infrastructure at Karolinska Institutet, from January 2025 and up until now. The Infrastructure Board also invites you to a dialogue meeting to discuss current and future needs for of the university's research infrastructure.

Flavoured drinks without sugar can be perceived as sweet – and now researchers know why. A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals that the brain interprets certain aromas as taste.

Among young people, the use of sleep medication has increased sharply – despite ongoing questions about the drugs’ effectiveness and long-term impact. Researchers now recommend psychological treatment instead.

Heart muscle injury during major surgery and intensive care is common. Michelle Chew studies which patients are at risk and how these injuries can be prevented and treated. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 9 October.

When Per Uhlén was fourteen, he ended up in a wheelchair. Since then, he has become a professor, started three companies, and competed in two Paralympic Games. “Sometimes I feel like my life is a film,” he says.