Biobanks, registries and epidemiology

Sweden is uniquely positioned for the pursuit of epidemiological research thanks to our long tradition of personal identity numbers, and access to national demographic and health registries. In addition, KI has globally unique resources in biobanking and longitudinal cohorts, as well as expanding competence in biostatistics. This puts our university at the frontline of medical epidemiological research in an international perspective.

Biostatistics Core Facility

The Biostatistics Core Facility provides biostatistical collaboration and support to medical and public health research, to ensure that experimental designs, data analyses, interpretation and dissemination of research findings take advantage of the most efficient and innovative methods in biostatistics.

Brain Bank

The Brain Bank at Karolinska Institutet is a center for clinical and experimental neuropathology with the aim to facilitate studies on the development, aging and diseases of the human central nervous system.

Dental Biobank

KI-Dental Biobank at the Department of Dental Medicine in Campus Flemingsberg consists of registered sample collections of biological material including blood plasma/serum, saliva samples, gingival crevicular fluid, plaque samples and microdialysis samples obtained from patients with various oral diseases.

The Developmental Tissue Bank Core Facility

The Developmental Tissue Bank Core Facility provides research groups with defined human embryonic and fetal tissue (“prenatal tissue”), derived from routine abortions, through a collaboration with various clinics. After the tissue is transferred to the facility, we determine the developmental stage, identify the retrieved tissue, perform any necessary dissection, and process the tissue as agreed with the user.

KI Biobank

KI Biobank Core Facility, situated at the university's north campus in Solna, is a modern and high-tech infrastructure for pre-analytical handling, storage and distribution of human biological samples. This facility provides services for collection, handling, storage and traceability of biobank samples and support customers both within and outside of Karolinska Institutet.

LifeGene

LifeGene is a national collaborative project, designed to build up a resource for research in all medical disciplines by combining a biological perspective with e-epidemiology. The project will include several hundred thousand research subjects over a period of 30 years, enabling new findings and better understanding of the relationship between heredity, lifestyle and the environment as regards to our most common diseases.

National E-infrastructure for Aging Research

The National E-infrastructure for Aging Research (NEAR) is a consortium of 8 Swedish universities, including Karolinska Institutet, and is financed by the Swedish Research Council. This research infrastructure coordinates 15 databases from major population-based longitudinal studies on aging and health in Sweden. NEAR data are collected by trained nurses, psychologists, physicians, and interviewers. The availability of biomedical, psychological, and social data in such a large older population makes NEAR unique and original.

Swedish Twin Registry

The Swedish Twin Registry Core Facility is a unique database and (inter)national resource. Established in the 1960s, this registry contains information about some 85 000 twin pairs for which zygosity is known, both mono- and dizygotic pairs. The STR is receptive to collaboration with academic and industry-based researchers.