News archive

This year’s silver medals are awarded to professors Kristina Alexanderson and Roland Möllby. The medal recognises excellent efforts to support the activities of Karolinska Institutet and is awarded at the Diligence and Devotion ceremony.

Tânia Costa at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition is the receiver of the Dan Grandér Memorial Prize 2020 for the best doctoral thesis in the area of cancer research at Karolinska Institutet during 2019. With a comprehensive and yet focused thesis, spanning from molecular mechanisms to patient outcome, illuminating the role of PAK 4 in tumor development and prognosis.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet and the Helmholtz Diabetes Research Center shows that primary cilia, hair-like protrusions on endothelial cells inside vessels, play an important role in the blood supply and delivery of glucose to the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreatic islets. The findings are published in eLife and may be relevant for transplantation therapies in diabetes, as formation of functional blood vessels is important for the treatment to be successful.

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.

Hi there Linda Sturesson Stabel, PhD student at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Lifelong Learning in Health Care Contexts (LLiHCC), defending her doctoral thesis "Entrance to and advancement within the Swedish medical labour market for physicians with a medical degree from outside the European Union". What is it about?

Professor emeritius Jan Lindsten was awarded KI’s Culture Award during the KI Culture Day on December 2. He was awarded for his outstanding contributions to bridge science with culture at KI.

Hello Elena Rafetti, doctoral student at the Department of Global Public Health. You will defend your thesis on 16 December. Tell us, what is the focus of your thesis and the project?

Sabine Koch, professor at HIC/LIME and president of IMIA is organising a dialogue meeting with the WHO Director General Dr Tedros.

Sabine Koch, professor and head of HIC, the Health Informatics Centre, is the keynote speaker at the 17th Brazilian Health Informatics Conference

It is a known fact that sexual minorities are at a higher risk of developing poor mental health, when compared to heterosexuals. The stigma that sexual minorities face has been regarded as potentially the primary cause of this. A new thesis from Karolinska Institutet offers an insight into how stigma-related factors may work in a broader socio-ecological system, considering the complex interaction between structural, interpersonal and individual factors.

Karl-Johan Malmberg, co-director of NextGenNK will present his research and the Competence Center at the digital event - Allogeneic Cell Therapies Summit 2021, May 17-19. The meeting is focused on the clinical and commercial development of engineered allogeneic cell therapies and innovating off-the shelf therapies to benefit patients in need.

Liu Yang from the research group Translational Psychiatry, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend her thesis "Exploring the Gut-brain Axis in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)" on December 4, 2020. Main Supervisor is Catharina Lavebratt.

DOAC (direct oral anticoagulant) pills are used in the treatment of atrial fibrillation by preventing blood clots. Even though blood clots are thought to contribute to complications from the new coronavirus infection, users of this class of drug do not seem to be protected against severe COVID-19, reports a large Swedish registry study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Journal of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have led an international team of scientists who have tested a vaccine for Crimean-Congo virus on primates for the first time. The vaccine provided protection against the virus, which can cause fatal haemorrhagic fever, and showed no serious side-effects. The study is published in the journal Nature Microbiology. The next big step will be to test the vaccine on humans.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), or nasopharynx cancer, is a malignant disease characterized by unique geographic distribution endemic to southern China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East/North Africa. It is known that the interaction of Epstein-Barr Virus infection, environmental and lifestyle factors, and genetic susceptibility, contributes to NPC carcinogenesis.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found unique synaptic connectivity patterns of neurons in the External Globus Pallidus in mice. This may hold the key to understanding how information is processed by the basal ganglia in health and disease. The article was recently published in Neuron.

The corona pandemic put a stop to the planned inauguration-reception this autumn, but now Karolinska Institutet's new 3D-EM core facility is fully operational after all. In the basement of Wargentin House on Solna campus there are several cryogenic electron microscopes of the latest models, that can be used by both KI researchers and external customers. Martin Hällberg, PI at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and director of the 3D-EM facility, is enthusiastic.

Shihua Sun has investigated the associations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific adverse outcomes including asthma and premature death. In his thesis, Shihua included four studies to clarify the magnitude and etiology of the associations, as well as potential effects from medication treatment that may prevent poor prognosis.

In a new study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have studied CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 genes impact on treatment with antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs. The study shows that a control of the patient’s genotype can be used to individualize the drug treatment and lead to a more effective treatment.

Birth asphyxia is one of the most common causes of neonatal death. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and others have now evaluated a method of resuscitation not previously used by midwives. The study, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that a laryngeal mask is a safe and easy-to-use alternative to other methods and one that is particularly suitable for use in low-income countries.

Gilberto Fisone has been awarded a three-year research grant from the Swedish Research Council within the program Novel Imaging and Brain Stimulation Methods and Technologies (JPND) for a project entitled "Phage-based targeted neural stimulation in neurodegenerative diseases".

In this weeks issue of New England Journal of Medicine Nicolas Pejovic and Susanna Myrnerts Höök report the results from the hitherto largest randomized trial comparing laryngeal mask airway to the standard face mask when resuscitating asphyxiated newborn infants.

KI Culture Day 2020 is a cultural Christmas cracker packed with music, art, comedy and science. The two-hour event is being organised with the Stockholm House of Culture and City Theatre (Kulturhuset) and will be live streamed to the public on 2 December at 3.00 p.m.

Concerns have been raised that the use of a common group of medications called RAS inhibitors could facilitate SARS-CoV-2 infection, impact COVID-19 disease severity and worsen prognosis. However, in a new nationwide registry-based study from Karolinska Institutet, including almost 1.4 million patients, use of RAS inhibitors was not associated with increased risk of hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. The study has been published in the European Journal of Heart Failure.

Female reproductive toxicity has long been recognized as a research area with many knowledge gaps, and current regulatory toxicology methods have limited possibilities to detect disruption of ovarian function by chemical exposures.

It is largely unknown why influenza infections lead to an increased risk of bacterial pneumonia. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now described important findings leading to so-called superinfections, which claim many lives around the world every year. The study is published in the journal PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and can also contribute to research on COVID-19.

On Tuesday morning alarming and ominous signals came from Iran that the death sentence against the former KI researcher and Swedish citizen Ahmadreza Djalali might soon be carried out.

Hi there Giulia Grande, PhD student at the Aging Research Center (ARC). You will be defending your thesis entitled “Development of dementia in older adults: the body-mind connection” on 11 December 2020. Could you give us a brief summary?

We wish to congratulate Axel Abelein at BioNut who has received Formas research project grant for early-career researchers for a project on Development of new protein-based biomaterials for sustainable purification of heavy metals from water.

Immunotherapy for cancer has made great advances and many patients can now receive effective treatments that were not available ten years ago. However, there are certain types of cancer that do not respond to existing immunotherapy. A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports on a new kind of immunotherapy that gives hope of more treatment options for cancer in the future.

The virtual SPARKS conference held on 2-3 December will gather a network of global leaders in public policy and research to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on social protection and health. Knut Lönnroth is the founder of the SPARKS Network and Professor of Social Medicine.

There are known differences in the survival rates of women and men with lung cancer. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet set out to investigate potential reasons behind this disparity, such as the presence of other underlying diseases and smoking status. The study, which was published in Chest, shows that women have better survival rates after lung cancer surgery than men, independent of other factors.

The Human Protein Atlas, a Swedish initiative, is turning 20. To celebrate the anniversary, the HPA consortium is launching a new website that combines atlas facts with breathtaking films of the human body and an updated version of the protein database. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet are involved in many different ways in the project.

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.

In her thesis, Shadi Azam studied the association between established breast cancer risk factors with mammographic density change over time and mammographic microcalcifications by using data from the prospective KARMA cohort.

Worry about COVID-19 dominates some people’s lives in a way that has an impact on their health. A group of researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has developed a digital CBT programme that significantly reduced the participants’ unhelpful worry about the pandemic. The study is published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and the programme is available through 1177 Vårdguiden.

Women with breast cancer whose eggs or ovarian tissue were frozen had more children after their diagnosis than women who did not undergo fertility preservation using those methods before start of cancer treatment. That is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in JAMA Oncology. According to the researchers, the result highlights the importance of reproductive counseling and fertility preservation for women who are diagnosed with cancer at a young age.

Hi Axel Leppert, PhD student at the Division of Neurogeriatrics! On December 11 you will defend your thesis “Molecular basis for chaperone activities of the BRICHOS domain against different types of clumpy clients – a route to prevent amyloid toxicity”. What’s the main focus of the thesis?

The global shutdown during the pandemic is particularly harmful to children and teenagers in the poorer parts of the world, said Professor Anna Mia Ekström during an ethics seminar held at KI in November. Also participating at the seminar was state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.

Thirteen researchers connected to Karolinska Institutet are on the 2020 list of highly cited researchers presented by Clarivate, the company behind Web of Science.

Knowledge about the influence of lifestyle and environmental factors on diabetes risk is important as these factors are potentially modifiable and may be targeted in the prevention of diabetes.

Recent data suggest that adults may experience long-term symptoms after COVID-19 infection, but if such symptoms also occur in children is still unknown. Children tend to have milder COVID-19 than adults, but in a case-report from Sweden, Professor and pediatrician Jonas F Ludvigsson describes five children with potential “long COVID”. These findings, together with a systematic review of long COVID in children, are published in the journal Acta Paediatrica.

Karolinska Institutet have been awarded a grant of SEK 290 million from the Swedish Cancer Society. NVS researchers Maria Hagströmer and Linda Björkhem-Bergman are among the recipients.

One of the researchers who received fundings from the Swedish Cancer Society on November 10, 2020 is Professor Anna Martling at the research group Colorectal Surgery, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. The Cancer Foundation contributes a total of SEK 18 million to two research projects concerning colorectal cancer.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report promising results from an in vitro combination therapy against COVID-19. In a study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, the researchers show that a combination of remdesivir, an approved drug against COVID-19, and hrsACE2, a medicine currently in phase II trials for COVID-19 treatment, reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibited viral replication in cell cultures and organoids.

Together with Stiftelsen Silviahemmet, Karolinska Institutet has developed a new online course on dementia; “Dementia from Cell to Society”. The course offers a unique multi-professional perspective on caring for people with dementia.

Next autumn KI will launch a new medical programme to gradually replace the current one. The Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) has now granted Karolinska Institutet degree-awarding powers for the new programme, making KI one of seven Swedish universities authorised to issue medical degrees.

What does the defense against bacterial infections have in common with hearing or fertilization? Key players in these and many other crucial biological processes belong to a large family of extracellular proteins using a common polymerization engine known as “zona pellucida (ZP) module”. Detailed information on how ZP module proteins look like in their functional polymeric state has so far remained elusive. Now researchers at KI have finally shed light on this long-standing question.

We congratulate Dr. Magnus Dalén, at the Thoracic Surgery research group, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, who has been awarded Ingegerd and Viking Olov Björk Memorial Scholarship 2020.

The rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib can block viral entry and reduce mortality in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, according to translational research by an international team coordinated by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, support the continuation of ongoing randomized clinical trials.