Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) bacteria are a major cause of diarrhoea in children below five years of age in low and middle-income countries and also in travellers.
Public authorities and organisations in Sweden are mobilising their resources in an effort to halt the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Karolinska Institutet arranged a meeting to discuss existing challenges in terms of organising aid initiatives and there is a course starting on Monday that will prepare medical staff for their work in the countries most severely hit by Ebola.
How are children made – at molecular level? That is a question Luca Jovine is trying to answer in his research. In the long term, knowledge about the mechanisms of fertilisation can lead both to new contraceptives and to new hope for the childless.
The salamander is a master at recreating parts of the body, both lost limbs as well as parts of the heart and brain. András Simon wants to understand how it works. This knowledge could lead to new treatments for everything from wound healing to Parkinson's.
Olle Kämpe is professor of clinical endocrinology and is researching autoimmunity. By studying specific diseases such as Addison's disease and APS-1, he wants to increase a broader understanding of how and why the body's immune system attacks its own tissues. His research has resulted in new diagnostic methods, and may eventually lead to new treatments.
Per-Johan Jakobsson, professor of translational inflammatory research, wants to gain a better understanding of chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatism with the aid of proteomics, the large-scale analysis of proteins. His research on prostaglandins may lead to more efficacious drugs for pain and fever in the long term.
Vivianne Malmström, professor of rheumatological immunology, is doing research to enable autoimmune diseases like rheumatism to be cured and prevented in the future. To achieve this, more knowledge is needed about the diseases' mechanisms at the molecular level.