More than half of our genome consists of transposons, DNA sequences that are reminiscent of ancient, extinct viruses. Transposons are normally silenced by a process known as DNA methylation, but their activation can lead to serious diseases. Very little is known about transposons but researchers in an international collaboration project have now succeeded for the first time in studying what happen

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/study-sheds-light-darker-parts-our-genetic-heritage - 2025-08-27

An extensive study has confirmed that the risk of developing coeliac disease is connected to the amount of gluten children consume. The new study is observational and therefore does not prove causation; however, it is the most comprehensive of its kind to date. The results are presented in the prestigious journal JAMA. In total, 6 600 children at increased risk of developing coeliac disease were f

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/association-between-coeliac-disease-risk-and-gluten-intake-confirmed - 2025-08-27

Arthur, who was born on 15 July in Dresden, Germany was number 100,000 to be screened for high risk of type 1 diabetes. Photo: GPPAD A total of 100,000 newborn babies have now been screened for type 1 diabetes within the framework of GPPAD (The Global Platform for the Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes), a major European initiative to find children with a high hereditary risk of developing the dise

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/100000-babies-screened-high-risk-type-1-diabetes - 2025-08-27

Filipe Pereira, research team leader and Molecular Medicine Fellow at the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine (WCMM), Lund University. Photo: Kennet Ruona The first evidence was recently presented demonstrating how the immune system can be controlled by directly reprogramming connective tissue cells into immune cells. The discovery provides the opportunity to develop an entirely new strategy

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/research-project-develop-innovative-strategy-cancer-therapy - 2025-08-27

Kinga Gawlik, researcher at the Dep. of Experimental Medical Science. Photo: Agata Garpenlind A new technology has brought researchers one step closer to a future cure for Congenital Muscular Dystrophy type1A, a devastating muscle disease that affects children. The new findings are based on research by Kinga Gawlik at Lund University, Department of Experimental Medical Science, and were recently p

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/reversing-muscle-dystrophy - 2025-08-27

It is extremely momentous for me to be awarded the prize and it’s flattering not least because many significant researchers at the faculty have won the prize previously”, says Johan Malmström, winner of the 2019 Fernström Prize for young researchers. This year’s Fernström Prize for young, particularly promising and successful researchers at Lund University is awarded to Professor Johan Malmström.

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/lunds-fernstrom-prize-research-interaction-proteins - 2025-08-27

The Öresund Bridge. Photo: Mopstphotos On 4 November there is an opportunity for researchers at Lund University to participate free of charge in the annual meeting of the Medicon Valley Alliance. Petter Hartman, CEO, talks about the benefits for both society and individual researchers when life science networks are strengthened and cooperation flourishes across national boundaries. It is said that

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/power-networking-within-life-science - 2025-08-27

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are the latest topics within health and care services. With its capacity to process large volumes of data, self-learning software can detect complex correlations between patients, find disease markers at an early stage and make more correct diagnoses. However, this new technology also implies a risk. An interdisciplinary research project involving

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/researchers-study-how-self-learning-software-can-provide-improvements-healthcare - 2025-08-27

Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive type of cancer representing approximately nine percent of all breast cancer cases in Sweden. It is more common among younger women, has a high heredity factor and causes more frequent relapses earlier in the course of the disease than other breast cancers. Researchers have applied full genome sequencing to carry out detailed mapping of genetic mutatio

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/patient-specific-diagnostics-breast-cancers-are-difficult-cure - 2025-08-27

For people with mental health problems, it can take time and be difficult to achieve a successful working life. A new thesis from Lund University describes what is required to facilitate working life for persons with mental health problems: Hope and belief in the person's ability to work. To focus on the person and increase knowledge of mental illness among both employers and those who work with v

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/belief-peoples-ability-work - 2025-08-27

William Agace, Professor at Mucosal Immunology at Dep. of Experimental Medical Science at Lund University. Photo: Agata Garpenlind He was selling carpets on Mårtenstorget in Lund, applying for all kinds of jobs and answered an advert from the Department of Clinical Immunology, Lund University, for a lab technician job. He didn´t get the job. Instead he was asked if he wanted to start a Ph.D. A few

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/carpets-market-academy-professor - 2025-08-27

Darcy Wagner and Sandra Lindstedt Ingemansson, researchers at the Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine, Lund University and Skåne University Hospital. Photo: Agata Garpenlind 800 people in Sweden are currently on the waiting list to receive donated organs, but there are too few organs. Nearly one person dies each week in Sweden while on the waiting list. How can this lack of donor organs in Sw

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/translational-research-developing-new-methods-prevent-organ-rejection-and-growing-new-organs-lab - 2025-08-27

Jan Nilsson, Professor in Cardiovascular Research and Chair of the new think tank Vård och Vetenskap. Swedish health care delivers good results, yet we hear every day about the health crisis and its consequences. Now, representatives of academia and health care have grown tired of the crises and started the think tank Health Care and Science with the goal of contributing to solutions and spreading

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/think-tank-seeks-solutions-health-crisis - 2025-08-27

Carl-Johan Fraenkel. Photo: Tove Smeds Contagion spreads in various ways, with airborne viruses being especially difficult to protect oneself against. Norovirus, or the winter vomiting bug as it is sometimes known, is just such a virus. Carl-Johan Fraenkel, infectious disease and healthcare hygiene specialist, is currently defending his thesis at Lund University, looking at various aspects of how

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/researchers-track-spread-norovirus-hospitals - 2025-08-27

For a decade now, the Rehabilitation Medicine research group’s work on spinal cord injuries (SCI’s) has had a far-reaching impact. In many areas, this is research at the global cutting edge; not least, in terms of following the same group of individuals as they live – and age – with spinal cord injuries. Research group leader Jan Lexell is preparing to flex the group’s academic muscles further in

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/lund-research-spinal-cord-injuries-continues-have-global-impact - 2025-08-27

Joan Yuan, research team leader at the Department of Laboratory Medicine. Photo: Åsa Hansdotter Directly after birth, the immune system completes production of a subtype of antibody-producing immune cells, B-1, that are to last for a lifetime. No more B1-cells are formed after that point. However, these cells are self-reactive – they produce not only antibodies against foreign substances, but also

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/how-self-reactive-immune-cells-are-allowed-develop - 2025-08-27

Rebecca Warfvinge. Photo: Åsa Hansdotter. Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a slowly progressing form of blood cancer that attacks the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. The condition requires lifelong treatment that can cause severe side effects. Rebecca Warfvinge maps stem cells in patients in the hope of identifying predictive markers for how the patient will react to therapy. She has now

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/tailored-therapy-chronic-myeloid-leukaemia - 2025-08-27

When then medical student Jonatan Wistrand met a patient who was seriously ill with cancer a few years ago he was extremely moved. On November 29 he defended his doctoral thesis at Lund University with his thesis “The doctor as the patient – documentary and literary statements during the 20th and 21st century”. “I did my training in medical school but worked temporarily during the summer as an ass

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/situation-conflict-when-doctor-becomes-patient - 2025-08-27

Mobile apps can help patients with neurological disorders manage their symptoms better and stimulate people into having a healthier lifestyle. This is indicated by interdisciplinary research conducted at the research centre CASE at Lund University, which has been published in the scientific journal Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. “The results are significant to future developm

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/improved-symptom-management-and-healthier-lifestyle-help-apps - 2025-08-27

Einar Smith is being awarded the Swedish Savings Bank Foundation scholarship for his thesis. A prospective study which demonstrates that the metabolite ergothioneine, independent of other risk factors, can be linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death. The study is published in BMJ Heart. Einar Smith is being awarded the Swedish Savings Bank Foundation scholarship for b

https://www.medicine.lu.se/article/connection-between-markers-healthy-diet-and-reduced-risk-cardiovascular-disease-resulted-scholarship - 2025-08-27