Research at Oslo University Hospital

Tumor hypoxia promotes metastasis and resistance to radiotherapy in prostate cancer. An imaging method to assess hypoxia at diagnosis can help to select patients for intensified treatment and avoid overtreatment of indolent, low-risk disease; but has not been successfully developed for this disease. In this paper, postdocTord Hompland in Heidi Lyng's group at Department of Radiation Biology and his co-workers present a novel method to visualize hypoxia based on diagnostic, multiparametric diffusion weighted MR images (DW-MRI). The work is part of an ongoing collaboration between the group and the FuncProst research team, headed by Therese Seierstad and Knut Håkon Hole at Division of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at OUS. The method can easily be translated into clinical practice, and a large scale, prospective evaluation of the method is planned for prostate cancer.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Starting Grant 2018 of EUR 1,5 million to Johannes Roksund Hov at the Norwegian PSC Research Center at University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital. The project StopAutoimmunity aims to identify gut microbial factors driving the autoimmune liver disease primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).
With 3170 applications, 2018 Starting Grants were in very high demand. 403 talented early career researchers have been awarded European Research Council grants. Scientists will benefit from EUR 603 million in total and up to EUR 1.5 million each, to create their own research teams and conduct pioneering projects. The grants are part of the 'excellent science' pillar of the EU's current Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020. 

Binding of growth factors to their receptors is known to cause endocytosis and degradation of the receptors and their ligands by a mechanism that involves the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery. Failure of this mechanism can lead to cancer development. In a recent paper in Nature Communications, a team led by project leaders Eva Wenzel and Camilla Raiborg at Institute for Cancer Research and Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming has used advanced microscopy methods to reveal the dynamics of ESCRT recruitment and formation of multivesicular endosomes (MVEs) into which the receptor-ligand complexes are sorted for subsequent degradation.

Professor Harald A. Stenmark, head of the "Cellular membrane dynamics" research group at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Institute for Cancer Research, has been given the prestigious University of Oslo Research Research Award for 2018.

In their statement the prize committee wishes to acknowledge one of the University's most prominent researchers in cancer research and cell biology, who has built an internationally renowned research environment that delivers innovative and original research helping to put the University of Oslo on the world map.

The research award will be distributed during the annual UiO party on September 2nd. Prizes for education, communication and innovation will also be given out during this event, each of the four awards amounting to 250.000 NOK.

Dag Berild, head of the "Study group for rational antibiotic use" at the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Division of Medicine was appointed "Researcher of the Month" for July 2018 by the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst RHF).

Antibiotic resistance is now one of the biggest threats to public health in the world. Dag Berild was among the first to warn against the wrong use of antibiotics.
Berild's research activities is presented in a feature article published on the home page of Helse Sør-Øst.

The "DoMore!" project headed by Håvard E. Danielsen, director of the Institute for Cancer Genetics and Informatics, was recently presented in a feature article in the major national Norwegian newspaper VG.

By examining 20.000 cancer tumor samples from more than 7000 patients and using artificial intelligence the scientists look for patterns that may say something about a patient's prognosis. They focus on the three most common forms of cancer - lung, colorectal and prostate cancer. Results from the project har recently been published in Lancet Oncology (journal impact factor 36.4).

The DoMore! project was selected in 2016 as one of the Norwegian Research Council’s Lighthouse projects to solve large societal challenges using cutting-edge technologym and will run until 2021.

Postdoctor Andreas M. Hoff in the Skotheim group at the Department of Molecular Oncology spent a year of his postdoc in the lab of Matthew Meyerson at the Broad Institute and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA. As shared first-author, he publishes together with his colleagues at the Meyerson lab in the prestigous journal Cell (impact factor 30).

The South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority hereby announces a call for applications for research projects and research activities starting in 2019.

The total funding available for this call is approximately 100 million Norwegian kroner.

Application deadline is Tuesday, September 5th 2018 kl. 16:00.

Therese Seierstad from Mona-Elisabeth Revheim's "Functional and Molecular Imaging" research group at the Division of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine was appointed "Researcher of the Month" for June 2018 by the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst RHF). Her research is mostly focused on prostate cancer and breast cancer. As head of research at the division she is also involved in research projects not directly related to cancer treatment.
Seierstad's work is presented in a feature article published on the home page of Helse Sør-Øst.