New gene-based prognostic test for colorectal cancer

First authors Trude Ågesen (left) and Anita Sveen

Researchers at Oslo University Hospital, Radium Hospital and Aker, have developed a prognostic test for patients with stage II colorectal cancer. The test, ColoGuideEx, measures the activity of 13 genes in the cancer tissue, and each gene contributes with prognostic information.
The study was published on January 2^nd, 2012, in the prestigious journal GUT (impact factor 11). The first authors, Trude Ågesen and Anita Sveen (photo), are PhD students in the research groups of Ragnhild A. Lothe and Rolf I. Skotheim, Department of Cancer Prevention, Institute for Cancer Research.

The Norwegian Oncology Forum’s Young Researcher award 2011 to Guro E. Lind

Guro E. Lind

The Norwegian Oncology Forum distributes a research prize to a young scientist during their annual meeting, which this year was held in Oslo November 17-18. The candidate must be active within either of the fields basal, clinical, epidemiological or translational cancer research, and the winner must have achieved results of exceptional quality.

The Young Researcher award for 2011 went to Guro E. Lind for her contributions to cancer epigenetics. After receiving the prize she gave a lecture presenting her scientific achievements. Lind works at Department of Cancer Prevention, where she is leading a project group.

Stine Aske Danielsen successfully defends her PhD thesis

Stine Aske Danielsen from the Lothe lab gave an excellent trial lecture on the topic ”Molecular basis for targeted therapies in colorectal cancer” on November 15, and successfully defended her PhD thesis the following day.

Her thesis is entitled "Molecular markers of colorectal cancer and their clinical potential".

Stine Aske Danielsen is now employed as a Postdoc in the Lothe lab.

Andreas Hoff and Peter Eide awarded Master’s degree

Congratulations to Andreas Hoff and Peter Eide, who defended their Master’s theses on the 17th and 21st of June 2011 respectively at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of Oslo.

Jun 28, 2011

Researchers from Department of Cancer Prevention reveal importance for transcriptome instability in colorectal cancer

Sveen (left) and Ågesen, with shared first-authorship

Anita Sveen, Trude Ågesen and co-workers at the Department of Cancer Prevention have published a paper in Genome Medicine describing transcriptome instability as a novel phenotype in colorectal cancer. This paper is the first to describe that the genome-wide amount of alternative splicing is varying in colorectal cancers. The study further shows that transcriptome instability is linked to the expression level of most splicing factors and is as well associated with patient survival.
The article is covered on the blog of BioMed Central and highlighted as Editor's pick on the journal web pages.

Solveig Sirnes successfully defends her PhD thesis

On Wednesday April 13th, Solveig Sirnes first gave an excellent trial lecture on the subject "The role of connexins in the communication between cancer cells and their neighbouring stromal cells", and later the same day successfully defended her PhD thesis "The connexin gene family in cell communication and cancer".

Apr 20, 2011

Ragnhild A. Lothe elected to the EACR Council

Prof Ragnhild A. Lothe has been elected to the EACR Council as the National Network Representative for Norway.

The term of office as ‘National Network’ representative is four years.

Election information from the EACR website.

Apr 13, 2011

Marianne Berg - Excellent trial lecture for PhD

Cand.scient Marianne Berg from the Lothe lab. defended her PhD on October 27^th 2010. She held an excellent trial lecture the day before on the subject "How can the use of advanced molecular techniques contribute to introduction of personalized medicine in cancer diagnostics and treatment?"

Dec 1, 2010

Maren Høland graduated

Maren Høland recently received the degree of Master of Science by the University of Oslo, Institute for Molecular Biosciences. In her master’s project Maren investigated in situ expression of 11 different protein markers and their prognostic value in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. The main findings were the identification of two different immunohistochemical protein expression profiles that could distinguish a high risk patient group from a low risk group, even among patients in complete remission.

The M.Sc. project was supervised by Dr. Matthias Kolberg and Prof Ragnhild A. Lothe (co-supervisor).

Maren has recently received a PhD grant from the Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, and will work in the Lothe group at the Centre for Cancer Biomedicine.

Tone Aase Fykerud graduated

We congratulate Tone Aase Fykerud on being awarded the degree of Master of Science by the University of Oslo. She defended her Master thesis on June 23. In her Master project, Tone investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in endocytosis and degradation of the gap junction protein connexin43, with emphasis on the role of ubiquitin. Edward Leithe has acted as a supervisor on the project. Tone started her Master project in October 2008, and is now working as a research associate in our department.