The Division of Neuro

Medical student Julie Cheung from Karolinska Institutet (KI), affiliated with Eric Thelin's research group, recently won first prize at the prestigious Global Undergraduate Awards thesis competition in the category of Medical Sciences.

University of Bergen in collaboration with researchers at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, have been awarded a significant grant funded by Horizon Europe with €7 million during 2024-2028 in recognition of their dedication to target Epstein-Barr virus to treat and prevent Multiple Sclerosis.

On July 1, 2023, our research group leader Karin Jensen was employed as professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience (CNS).

A new study in Nature by an international team including researchers at Karolinska Institutet has identified the first genetic variant associated with disease severity in multiple sclerosis. Ingrid Kockum at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, and principal investigator for the European part of the study, says that this gives us an opportunity to develop new treatments to control progression, which is urgently needed by so many people suffering from MS.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Olivia Thomas and Mattias Bronge in Hans Grönlund's research group, have found further evidence for how the Epstein-Barr virus can trigger multiple sclerosis or drive disease progression.

Tomas Olsson at the Division of Neuro has been ranked as #35 by the leading academic platform Research.com of the country's top researchers in 2023 in the medical field. This is the highest ranking in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the Centre for Imaging Research (CIR), SciLifeLab, and RISE have together received a grant of over SEK 100 million from the European Commission's Digital Europe programme. The project, called TEF-Health, will, among other things, promote the rapid introduction of new artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics solutions in healthcare.

On October 4, 2022, our research group leader Niaz Ahmed was employed as an adjunct professor at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, CNS, the Division of Neuro.

Karolinska Institutet has signed a collaboration agreement with the European research infrastructure EBRAINS, which offers digital tools and services for research into the brain. The purpose of this agreement is to give KI's researchers access to new digital technology and state-of-the-art resources, as well as the opportunity to contribute to the further development of the area of neuroscience within the EU.

The national MEG lab at Karolinska Institutet is already the only lab in Sweden with equipment to measure neuronal brain activity in real time across the entire brain. Now, a new sensor-system upgrade to its technical equipment will make the lab an international leader in the field.

Staffan Holmin at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, is awarded the Prize for Innovation and Utilization, 2022. The prize recognizes one or more researchers/research students who have distinguished themselves through outstanding utilization of research results that have led to innovation.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden might have found an explanation for why people with self-injury behaviour generally feel less pain than others. The key seems to be a more effective pain-modulation system, a discovery that can benefit people seeking help for their self-harm. The findings are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Currently available therapies to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) lack precision and can lead to serious side effects. Researchers at KI have now developed a method for identifying the immune cells involved in autoimmune diseases, and have identified four new target molecules of potential significance for future personalised treatment of MS.  Working alongside Professor Tomas Olsson’s research group at Karolinska Institutet, Grönlund and his team at the Division of Neuro have developed a method that makes it possible to identify the T cells that react to certain target molecules – so called autoantigens. 

StratNeuro has awarded SEK 1,000,000 in start-up grant 2022 to Enric Llorens, Arvid Guterstam and Jeroen Goos. The StratNeuro Start-up Grant is intended to support outstanding Neuroscience researchers at the beginning of their careers, who have received a VR starting grant or a Karolinska Institutet assistant professor grant.

Interesting thesis from one of our colleagues  at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, on the importance of the connection between the brain and the gut for Parkinson´s disease

A digital 1-day meeting attended by 300 participants brought neuroscience researchers from across Europe together to reflect on both progress to date and plans for the future for the collaborative European University Initiative (EUI) focusing on neurochallenges.

Eva Kosek has been researching pain mechanisms for many years. Now she and her colleagues have developed criteria for calling in so-called nociplastic pain. It is a condition in which pain is not just a symptom but a disease in itself.

The discovery that the anaesthetic ketamine can help people with severe depression has raised hopes of finding new treatment options for the disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now identified novel mechanistic insights of how the drug exerts its antidepressant effect. The findings have been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.