Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Centre for Global Health Karolinska Institutet ki.se/globalhealth Karolinska Institutet is one of the world´s leading medical universities. Its mission is to contribute to the improvement of human health through research and education. Karolinska Institutet accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden and offers the country´s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Phone: +46-8-524 833 86 +46-8-524 872 77 Adress: Nobels väg 9 171 76 Stockholm Sweden Photo: Lennart Nilsson/Scanpix, iStockphoto, Annelie Eriksson. Contact A medical university Centre for Global Health Karolinska Institutet Research for sustainable health Research at Karolinska Institutet’s Centre for Global Health aims to improve health A focus on the diseases of the poor Global health refers to health issues that have a global political and economical impact across national borders. Our focus lies on diseases, both infectious and noninfectious, in the context of poverty. Our research aims to answer questions relating to the social determinants of health and injuries, including gender-specific needs in policies and interventions, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age and urban/rural aspects. Extensive global collaboration Most of our research projects deal with poverty-related health issues in low-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We have extensive research collaborations with over 60 countries including Vietnam, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Uganda. Projects also involve comparative research in middle- and high-income countries. • • • • • Founded in 2007 40 research groups with 250 researchers at Karolinska Institutet Collaborations with universities in 60 countries Research focus on HIV, tuberculosis, pneumonia, malaria, vaccines, maternal and infant mortality and health systems Working with WHO, EU and Unicef Hans Rosling Professor of Public Health Science Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet ”We focus on the diseases of the poor” At Karolinska Institutet we cannot work directly to combat poverty, but through our world class medical research we can promote health and thereby strengthen vulnerable populations. For example, in India maternal mortality is 250 per 100,000 live born babies. In Sweden, the corresponding figure is four. We strive to diminish these differences. By focusing on the diseases of the poor, we produce high impact research that benefits the majority of humanity. These diseases, like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, affect millions of people around the world. Furthermore, working with large, international populations gives access to a wide social, economic and genetic diversity. This provides a better opportunity to study how genes and environment affect our health. Vinod Diwan Director, Centre for Global Health Karolinska Institutet Photo: Johan Bergman Centre for Global Health in brief Global health as a research area originated in the late 19th century when the western world started to industrialize its colonies. Over the centuries, the motivation behind research has changed, from colonization to missionary work, to tourism, to immigration. Today, global health has moved beyond the concept of tropical diseases, to include all conditions where poverty is an underlying aetiology, and where infections, malnutrition and other conditions must be managed with very scarce health service resources, which are just one percent or a few percent of the resources available in Sweden. The lack of population registers, lack of death registration and incomplete service coverage constitute a context with new methodological challenges. This makes global health an intellectually demanding subject. The research at the Centre for Global Health has yielded findings that make a huge difference for health care in poor areas of the world. The most important goal for research in global health is to find new and more effective ways to do things since the physical, social and economic conditions vary more than one hundred-fold around the globe. Photo: Stefan Nilsson and achieve health equity for people worldwide, regardless of gender, ethnic origin or socioeconomic background. By developing tools for the prevention, control and treatment of major diseases, we want to contribute to closing the gap in global health inequalities. Integrated disciplines for successful research The Centre for Global Health is a collaboration across disciplinary boundaries where researchers from molecular and clinical medicine, public health and technology work together. The centre includes research, doctoral education and undergraduate education. We also collaborate with international partners. In addition, we establish infrastructure for conducting field research in poor societies. ”Centre for Global Health makes a huge difference” ”Going for a malaria vaccine” Mats Wahlgren, Chairman, Centre for Global Health Professor of Infectious Disease Control Karolinska Institutet Photo: Johan Bergman The research at the Centre for Global Health is not related to one subject as it is at the university’s departments. Instead, the purpose of the centre is to connect researchers from different fields that relate to diseases of the poor in a poverty context. The researchers at Karolinska Institutet excel in many of these areas, like public health, health systems and epidemiology. By facilitating cooperation between them, we hope to find synergy effects between these fields. In my research group, we study malaria and specifically the molecules in the parasite that makes us sick. Our goal is to develop a vaccine that can prevent malaria infection as well as a drug that can cure the disease. We have formed a company based on this research and we expect results from our first clinical studies during ”Extensive international collaboration gives us unique clinical data” Photo: UNICEF Susanna Brighenti, PhD Assistant Professor Centre for Infectious Medicine, Karolinska Institutet Huddinge Photo: Bosse Johansson Tuberculosis is a major health challenge in many poor countries and several local outbreaks in Sweden have also increased national attention to this disease. About one third of the world population carries a latent infection with the tuberculosis bacterium, which creates an enormous reservoir for the potential spread of infection and disease. Thus, improved healthcare programmes, vaccines, diagnosis and treatment would certainly have a positive effect on the of many people. Our research group focuses on understanding more about the specific immune responses induced during infection with tuberculosis, and how these are regulated on a cellular level. The aim of our research is also to study how deficient immune responses in chronic tuberculosis contribute to disease severity in tuberculosis/HIV co-infection, since HIV infected individuals are highly susceptible to developing active tuberculosis. We have strong research collaborations primarily with Ethiopia and Bangladesh, from where we obtain unique clinical materials from patients infected with tuberculosis and HIV. We also have a long tradition of educational collaboration with these countries, and most of our students and post docs are recruited from our collaborating institutions. Steering Group for Global Health Mats Wahlgren, Chairman, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Vinod Diwan, Professor and Director Centre of Global Health, Department of Public Health Sciences Marie Arsenian Henriksson, Professor and Head of Department, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Anders Björkman, Professor, Department of Medicine Kristina Broliden, Professor, Department of Medicine Sofia Carlsson, Associated Professor, Unit of Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine Birgitta Henriques-Normark, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Erik Ingelsson, Professor, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Akira Kaneko, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology Lucie Laflamme, Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences Lars Lindqvist, Professor, Karolinska University Hospital, Department of Infectious diseases Andreas Mårtensson, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine Anders Sönnerborg, Adjunct Professor, Department of Medicine Taha Hirbod, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine Research groups at KI with the global health agenda • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset Department of Dental Medicine Department of Clinical Neuroscience (CNS) Department of Environmental Medicine (IMM) Department of Laboratory Medicine Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department of Medicine, Huddinge Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM) Department of Medicine, Solna Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC) Department of Oncology-Pathology Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society Department of Physiology and Pharmacology Department of Public Health Sciences (PHS) Department of Women’s and Children’s Health Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control Photo: UNICEF