Research at Oslo University Hospital

Ideally, protein-based biologics could be given transmucosally, rather than intravenously or subcutaneously, but the efficiency of transmucosal drug uptake is poor. In addition, many protein-based biologics hamper from short plasma half-life. 

Scientists at University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, in collaboration with international researchers in Italy, Germany and US, have developed a biomedical technology that solves these major challenges.

ERGO - Epilepsy Research Group of Oslo - presented their research at an open public meeting in September during the "Forskningsdagene 2020". Title of the meeting was: "Epilepsy - from basic research to modern clinical treatment".
Senior consultant, MD, PhD Kjell Heuser, discussed the role of glial cells in epilepsy. Thereafter, the PhD candidates Toni Berger, Cecilie Bugge Bakketun and Monika Mochol talked about epigentics in epilepsy (TB), how to use brain slices in the study of epilepsy (CBB) and the use of zebrafish in epilepsy research (MM) to understand basic mechanisms of epileptogenesis. 

On this web page you will find an overview over planned and ongoing clinical trials and other research projects at Oslo University Hospital related to COVID-19 and SARS CoV-2 infection. The information has been retrieved from applications to the regional ethics committee, the Norwegian Research Council, other funding sources, or directly from the researchers behind the projects.

Jan Cato Holter from the Department of Microbiology has written an article about how the Norwegian SARS-CoV-2 study in a period of 7 months has evolved to becoming a national multicenter collaboration across all health regions and partners in the global covid-19 network. The Research Council of Norway has funded the project, which has produced 10 scientific works, of which 8 have already been submitted and 4 accepted in prestigious scientific journals. Norwegian SARS-CoV-2 study is now partner in the WHO / ISARIC global covid-19 network, led by the University of Oxford, together with 562 hospitals in 42 other countries. 

The article (in Norwegian) - entitled "Covid-19 forskning – globalt samarbeid og norsk dugnadsånd" is published on the Oslo University Hospital research blog "Ekspertsykehuset".

Three Oslo University Hospital scientists have received prestigous awards for their outstanding research. The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to Michael Bretthauer. Anna Hoffmann-Vold and Olav Kristianslund both received the "Early Career Award".

The prize money - 300.000 and 150.000 NOK respectively - is earmarked for research activities. The awards are distributed anually in order to honour excellent scientific work. The awarding process is organized by the hospital's research committee, while an external Scientific Advisory Board has evaluated the candidates. 

Researchers from Oslo University Hospital and Vestre Viken show that activation of the innate immune system contributes to breathing difficulties in covid-19 patients. In a study recently published in the prestigious journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Science" they show that systemic and long-term activation of the complement system occurred in 39 Norwegian covid-19 patients who were hospitalized.

OUH scientists Søren Pischke and Jan Cato Holter are shared first authors, and Tom Erik Mollnes is last author. They have also written a populuar science article about the findings.

The Department of Ophthalmology at Oslo University Hospital and the Laboratory of Adaptive Immunity and Homeostasis of both Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, have entered an industry development agreement with the Dutch medical device company SJJ Solutions. The collaboration has resulted in a prototype of a tailor-made syringe optimised for eye injections.

Based on a licence from Else Marit Inderberg and Sebastien Wälchli’s group at The Section of Cell Therapy at Oslo University Hospital, the company Zelluna Immunotherapy is developing natural killer cells that are steered by T cell receptors. The aim is to offer different forms of targeted immunotherapy treatments that do not have to be individually tailored for each patient. Zelluna Immunotherapy receives NOK 83 million from investors and the Research Council of Norway to continue its work on this new form of cancer immunotherapy.

A unanimous prize committee highlights Bogen’s contributions to medical vaccine research as critical to the field of medicine and research-based innovation at the University of Oslo. Bjarne Bogen is head of the Cellular and Molecular Immunology research group at the Department of Immunology, under the Division of Laboratory Medicine. He is a professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine and previously headed the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Influenza Vaccine Research, which closed in 2019. The award was distributed on September 2nd during the University of Oslo’s Annual Celebration.