Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institute
Karolinska institutet
Motto	To improve human health
Established	1810
Type	Medical University
President	Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson
Admin. staff	3,600 (2009)[1]
Students	5,500 (FTE, 2009)[2]
Doctoral students	2,100 (2009)[1]
Location	Stockholm, Sweden
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	LERU
Website	www.ki.se

Entrance from Solnavägen

The Berzelius laboratory, KI Solna

The University library and the Berzelius laboratory, KI Solna

The old yard, KI Solna

Original Caroline Institute buildings at street Hantverkargatan in Kungsholmen, Stockholm

Karolinska Institutet (often translated from Swedish into English as the Karolinska Institute, and in older texts often as the Royal Caroline Institute) is one of Europe's largest medical universities. According to the 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Karolinska Institute is the highest ranked university in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy in Europe, 8th in the world, and Sweden's highest ranked university in all categories.^[3] In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings the Karolinska Institute ranked 29th on the list of Top 50 universities for Life Sciences and Biomedicine.^[4]

The Karolinska University Hospital, located in Solna and Huddinge, is associated with the university as a research and teaching hospital. Together they form an academic health science centre. It is one of Sweden's largest centres for training and research, accounting for 30 percent of the medical training and 40 percent of the medical academic research conducted nationwide. While most of the medical programs are taught in Swedish, the bulk of the Ph.D. projects are conducted in English.

It was founded in 1810 on Kungsholmen island on the west side of Stockholm. Its main campus was moved decades later and located in Solna, just outside Stockholm, and a second campus more recently in Flemingsberg/Huddinge south of Stockholm.

A committee of the institute appoints the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The institute is a member of the League of European Research Universities.

History

Karolinska Institutet was founded in the period between 1810 and 1811, following the Finnish War, as a training center for army surgeons. The original name was at first 'Medico-Chirurgiska Institutet'.

In 1817 the prefix 'Karolinska' was added as a reference to the then Swedish king Karl XIII. The full name thus became 'Kongliga Carolinska Medico Chirurgiska Institutet'.^[5]

In 1968 this name was changed to 'Karolinska Institutet'.

Notable alumni or faculty

• Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848; professor at KI), invented modern chemical notation and is considered one of the fathers of modern chemistry; discoverer of the elements silicon, selenium, thorium, and cerium.
• Carl Gustaf Mosander (1792–1858; student of Berzelius, his successor 1836), chemist, discoverer of the elements lanthanum, erbium and terbium.
• Gustaf Retzius (1842–1919), anatomist (Professor 1877-1890)
• Karl Oskar Medin (1847–1928), paediatrician, famous for his study of poliomyelitis (Professor 1883-1914)
• Ivar Wickman (1872–1914), pediatrician, pupil of Medin, polio expert
• Hugo Theorell (1903–1982), Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1955
• Torsten Wiesel (1924-), Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1981
• Pehr Edman (1916–1977), chemist (Med. dr 1946). Cf. Edman degradation
• Lars Leksell (1907–1986), physician, inventor of radiosurgery and the Gamma Knife.
• Sune Bergström (1916–2004), Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 (with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John Robert Vane).
• Bengt I. Samuelsson (b. 1934), Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 (with Sune Bergström and John Robert Vane).
• Ragnar Granit (1900–1991), Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1967.
• Göran Liljestrand (1886–1968), physiologist and pharmacologist.
• Ulf von Euler (1905–1983), physiologist, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1970.
• Lorenz Poellinger (b. 1957), professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at KI.
• Rolf Luft (1914–2007), professor, endocrinologist.
• Tomas Lindahl, cancer researcher and winner of the Royal Medal.

Departments of research (by location)

Campus Solna

• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Environmental Medicine
• Learning, Informatics, Management & Ethics
• Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
• Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology
• Neuroscience
• Physiology and Pharmacology
• Woman and Child Health

Karolinska Hospital, Solna

• Clinical Neuroscience
• Clinical Science, Intervention & Technology
• Medicine, Solna
• Molecular Medicine and Surgery
• Oncology-Pathology
• Public Health Sciences

Campus Huddinge

• Biosciences and Nutrition
• Surgery, Huddinge
• Dental Medicine
• Laboratory Medicine
• Medicine, Huddinge
• Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society

Other

• Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset
• Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital

Research at Karolinska

Researchers at Karolinska largely focus on medical and biomedical research in all disease areas. Particular strengths are in neuroscience, cancer biology, immunology, and metabolic diseases.

See also

• Stockholm University
• Royal Institute of Technology
• Stockholm School of Economics
• Sahlgrenska University Hospital
• List of universities in Sweden
• The New Karolinska Solna University Hospital, to be opened in 2015

References

External links

• Karolinska Institutet - Official site
• KI Community - Interactive internal website for scientists at Karolinska Institutet

Universities in Sweden Public* Uppsala · Lund · Gothenburg · Stockholm · Umeå · Linköping · Karolinska Institutet · Royal Institute of Technology · Luleå · Karlstad · Linnaeus University · Örebro · Mid Sweden · Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Private Chalmers · Stockholm School of Economics * = Listed according to Högskoleförordning (1993:100), bilaga 1.