News archive

The number of Achilles tendon injuries has drastically increased over the past 20 years. Simon Svedman's thesis shows that blood clots are a common complication that needs better prevention.

Biomedicum was transformed into a colourful studio on May 26th when children rolled up their sleeves for a Science Clay Workshop that turned cell biology into art.

A day does not go by now without a report on the severe suffering that Israeli military strikes are causing the civilian population of Gaza. The situation is worsening by the day, as we witness the blatant and repeated abuse of international law and of the Gazans’ right to security and functioning schools, hospitals and workplaces.

Mayo Clinic and Karolinska Institutet are marking 30 years of collaboration by rescheduling their next joint research meeting to Fall 2026, aiming to focus on cutting-edge themes like RNA therapeutics, precision health, and decentralized care. The event will be held at Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville campus and is designed to reflect the evolving strengths of both institutions.

Together with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), KI organises a vaccinology course titled "Vaccines in a Changing World: Innovation and Access".

Alphonsus Matovu, PhD student at the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Global Surgery research group, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Groin Hernia Surgery in Women. Outputs, Factors, Methods and Costeffectiveness" on June 2, 2025. Main Supervisor is Jenny Löfgren.

After cycling 90 kilometres through sunshine, hail and beech forests, Pernilla Alencar Siljehag arrived in Tomelilla with tired legs and a heart full of impressions. Together with the initiator Oskar Jonsson, she has cycled a leg of the tandem tour that takes researchers around southern Sweden to give lectures on ageing and health. She shares her reflections on the conversations along the way, the audience at the library, and why research journeys are sometimes at their best when on two wheels.

Thanks to a generous donation from businesswoman and investment company director Louise Lindh, the Department of Dental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet is able to establish a new professorial chair. This marks an important step towards making dental health a self-evident and integral part of public health, a move that both researchers and healthcare professionals have long been calling for.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the 2nd Mats Sundin Postdoctoral Fellowship in Human Developmental Health.

Giola Santoni, biostatistician at the Upper Gastric Intestinal Surgery group at Karolinska Institutet, became docent in epidemiology on April 29, 2025.

Dr. Santoni holds a broad expertise in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, with a focus on cancer outcomes using Nordic registry data. Her work includes large-scale, register-based cohort studies focusing on cancer etiology and outcomes, intervention effects on cancer risk and survival, and socio-economic and lifestyle factors.

If you would like to meet with Indu Motwani, NVS's officer for international projects, please send her an email and schedule an appointment. She will be happy to come out and meet you.

In today's complex world, ethical issues are particularly important. Marie Chenik, senior advisor, monitors a wide range of sources, including leading newspapers from around the world, to gather the latest news on ethics in areas ranging from politics and religion to healthcare. "The ethics newsletter" is distributed free of charge once a week to anyone interested in the subject. A report on the first 350 newsletters is now available.

Ingrid Lundberg, senior physician and professor of rheumatology, has been awarded the title of honorary doctor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) for her significant contributions to myositis research.

Amir Ata Saei, assistant professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology has been awarded the Novo Nordisk Foundation Excellence Emerging Investigator Grant within Endocrinology and Metabolism 2025.

Researchers are getting better at growing miniature organs and embryos in test tubes or on chips. This creates new opportunities for answering research questions while reducing the need for animal testing in some cases.

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The Kamprad Family Foundation awards SEK 5 million to Elisabet Rydwik, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, for her research project on home rehabiltation for the elderly.

A new report by the second Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing , with contributions from Karolinska Institute, shows that adolescents' health globally is at a tipping point. Without targeted action, at least half of the world's adolescents will be at risk of poor health by 2030.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) have continued their tradition of academic collaboration by organizing a joint course for doctoral students once again this year. Held at the UTokyo Hongo Campus in Japan, the course titled "Bioinformatics Analysis and Visualization of Medical Genomics Data (H7F5633)", led by Dr. Carsten Daub, brought together 11 students from KI and 16 from UTokyo.

On May 16, 2025 Lis Frykler Abasi, physician at the Department of Anaesthesiology at Norrtälje Hospital, as well as our colleague and friend, successfully defended his doctoral thesis.

Karolinska Institutet will participate in a national follow-up of study support for students with disablilities.

A new study from the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet presents a promising method for identifying endocrine-disrupting chemicals – without the need for traditional animal testing. By combining RNA-sequencing of zebrafish embryos with a structured toxicological framework, researchers can now better predict harmful effects on human health.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet (KI), in collaboration with Umecrine Cognition AB, have been awarded a grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation to explore a promising new treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

An international team of researchers has found a genetic link to long-term symptoms after COVID-19. The identified gene variant is located close to the FOXP4 gene, which is known to affect lung function. The study, published in Nature Genetics, was led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.

A donation of SEK 10 million from the Promobilia Foundation is to provide crucial funding for a project designed to help children, adolescents and adults with motor impairments identify more as physically active and included in sport. The project is led by Ferdinand von Walden, researcher at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, and Jessica Norrbom, researcher at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet.

Welcome to Anna Zettergren's defense of the thesis ”Tobacco Exposure and Health – From Fetal Life to Adulthood”.

At this spring’s conferment ceremony in Stockholm City Hall, honorary doctorates were awarded to Margareta Persson and Leif Lundblad, both of whom are influential and leading figures in their respective fields. They were moved and proud to receive their hats, diplomas and tributes in the form of a cannon salute and applause from a packed Blue Hall. “My thoughts go to my dad today, he would’ve been so happy and proud,” said Margareta Persson after the ceremony.

At this spring’s most important academic ceremony, 143 doctors and two honorary doctors received their hats and diplomas at Stockholm City Hall. Each one has a story to tell of exciting challenges and many years’ devotion to their work. One of them is Martina Gustavsson. Raised on a farm in Västergötland, her journey to the City Hall podium involved many miles by motorbike through remote parts of Uganda.

When Martin Bergö and I entered office as, respectively, vice-president and president just over two years ago, we also entered an extensive dialogue with all the different parts of KI. This was a conscious strategy that gave rise, in part, to several focus areas for strengthening KI through the establishment of sustainable structures, greater collaboration, clarity and transparency.

Close ties between education and research are essential to a university, there being a mutually reliant relationship between them. There are environments with both a strong educational profile and a strong research profile at all KI departments, but there is not always close interaction between them. The Faculty Board has therefore decided to issue a call for funding to promote fruitful ties between such environments.

Within the national quality assurance system, universities are responsible for initiating and organising external reviews of their educational programmes. KI has decided that all education must undergo an external review every eight years, and this year it is the doctoral education’s turn. KI has only one doctoral education, in medical science, so all departments are affected.

The committee for higher education has decided to award Anders Sondén and Anna Pettersson KI's Pedagogical Prize in 2025.
The prize is awarded during the inauguration ceremony in Aula Medica in October.

New postdoc at the division of Neurogeriatrics.

The partnership between Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J) and Karolinska Institutet (KI) marks this year a decade of joint initiatives for promoting the development of tomorrow’s therapies. This long-standing collaboration between industry and academy has given rise to significant scientific advances in several fields of medicine.

KI researchers are invited to submit an expression of interest for new strategic research areas and clusters of excellence for groundbreaking technologies for the upcoming calls announced by the Government bill for research and innovation. The bill fits Karolinska Institutet’s ambitions and profile very well and provide great opportunity for KI to further strengthen and develop its research and innovative capacity. Deadline 27 May.

The tandem tour is a popular science initiative where researchers cycle through southern Sweden, giving lectures on ageing and health at libraries and community centres. The aim is to reach a broader audience, foster dialogue, and spark interest in the role of research in society. The tour, organised in collaboration with the graduate school SWEAH, runs from 4–27 May 2025 and is made possible thanks to support from the Sten K Johnson Foundation.

Oskar Swartling from the Integrative Cardiovascular, Cancer and Ageing Research unit (ICCA), at the Departmet of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending his thesis titled "Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease: Risk Factors, Sex Differences and Intervention", on 23 May, 2025. Main supervisor is Ylva Trolle Lagerros (MedH).

Manne Godhe, PhD student at the Sports Medicine research group, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Physical Activity and Fitness Measurements in Healthy Older Adults and Osteoarthrities Patients Undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty" on May 23, 2025. Main Supervisor is Eva Andersson.

David Wulliman from Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), at the Departmet of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending his thesis titled "T Cell Immunity Induced by SARS-CoV-2 and Flavivirus Vaccination", on 23 May, 2025. Main supervisor is Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren (MedH).

The combination of air pollution, dense urban development and limited green spaces increases the risk of asthma in both children and adults. This is shown by a new study conducted as part of a major EU collaboration led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet. The paper is published in Lancet Regional Health-Europe.

A study from Karolinska Institutet reveals how cells adapt to nutrient scarcity by altering their genetic instructions. This discovery, published in Molecular Cell, sheds light on cellular stress responses and opens up new medical treatments.

The official kick-off meeting for the EDCTP3 funded UTI-Diag project, coordinated by Professor Tobias Alfvén and his team, was held at Karolinska Institutet from April 24 to 25, 2025. The event marked the beginning of the consortium's collaborative efforts, establishing a comprehensive roadmap and work plan for the next 40 months.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended and presented at the very first Swedish Suicide Research Conference – a platform designed to promote high-quality, research-driven discussions on suicide and suicide prevention.

FyFa researcher Maria Lee has received a postdoctoral grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation: Wallenberg - Bienenstock Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme at Stanford. The grant funds two years of studies at Stanford.

The European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA) has announced Professor Lars Bäckman, Karolinska Institutet, as the recipient of the Aristotle Prize 2025. This distinguished award recognises individuals who have made a substantial and original contributions to psychology, particularly in the field of cognitive ageing.

On Friday, 16 May, this spring’s doctoral degree conferment ceremony will take place in the Blue Hall at Stockholm City Hall, where newly conferred doctors and honorary doctors will be celebrated. Medical students Nora Khatibi and Gottfrid Rehnman are two of the evening’s marshals. Here, they share insights into their roles – and how they prepare for the event.

A new study published in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery has found that deficits in the sense of smell, known as olfactory impairment, are significantly associated with increased mortality in older adults. The findings, based on data from over 2,500 participants in the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen, suggest that olfactory testing could serve as a valuable early indicator of broader health decline.

Hi Anna Rennie, doctoral student at the Division of Clinical Geriatrics. On June 9 you will defend your thesis ”Does white matter matter? Neuroimaging in dementia with Lewy bodies and related conditions.” What is the main focus of the thesis?

Welcome to Signild Kvart´s defense of the thesis ”Non-standard employment and health: Exploring the pathways to health inequality” on May 16th.

Alexander Waldthaler from the Gastroenterology and Nutrition Unit (GUT), at the Departmet of Medicine, Huddinge (MedH) is defending his thesis titled "Advanced techniques in ERCP", on 23 May, 2025. Main supervisor is Annika Bergquist (MedH).