Research at Oslo University Hospital

The surface of our brain, the cortex, is folded into an intricate pattern of bumps (gyri) and grooves (sulci). While individual differences in this pattern have been linked to brain disorders and cognitive performance, very little has been known about how the ‘bumpiness and grooviness’ of the cortex is determined. In a study recently published in the prestigious Science Advances, an international research team conducted the first major genetic study into cortical folding patterns.
«These findings enable experimental studies to identify the biological pathways involved», says professor Ole A. Andreassen, senior author and director of the NORMENT Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital.

Kay Schink – project group leader at Institute for Cancer Research - was on December 15^th awarded the prize Research of the Year from the leadership at ICR for his groundbreaking scientific contributions.

The award of 100 000 NOK is financed by the Radium Hospital Foundation (Radiumhospitalets legater) and is a personal scholarship for stimulating further excellence in research. 

Idun Dale Rein – service leader of the flow cytometry core facility - was on December 15^th awarded the prize Employee of the Year 2021 from the leadership at the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR). Rein works in the Department of Core Facilities, Unit for flow cytometry. The committee describes Idun Dale Rein as a very competent and service-minded employee who helps customers with everything from choosing the right probe to experimental set-up and interpretation of data. 

A team of scientists at the University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital (OUH) Radiumhospitalet and Karolinska Institutet, led by Professor Johanna Olweus, has developed a new type of immunotherapy for cancer. The new treatment makes the patient’s immune cells “believe” that cancer is a transplanted organ that should be rejected.

The results were published in Nature Biotechnology, one of the most prestigious cross-disciplinary scientific journals, on 6 December 2021.

Illumina, one of the largest international diagnostic companies in sequencing, has recently signed a collaboration contract with the national cancer study IMPRESS-Norway. 

"Securing high-quality tissue biopsies can be both challenging and time-consuming," says Hege Russnes, Senior Consultant in Pathology, OUH and Head of the Infrastructure for Precision Diagnostics for cancer (InPreD). " We are grateful to Illumina's support of this project and excited about the opportunity to investigate the match towards the CGP results from the tissue samples."

The Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Cancer Society have allocated 128 mill. NOK for a Centre for Clincial Treatment Research for treatment of cancer. 

"This funding is an important contribution to Norwegian cancer research and will ensure that more patients will be included into clinical trials. The aim is new and better treatment alternatives for hard-to-treat cancers. We will develop next generation diagnostics and treatment for increased overall survival and quality of life for cancer patients all over Norway" says Åslaug Helland, leader of the centre.

The Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) are together setting up national clinical precision cancer trials modelled on the very successful DRUP trial in the Netherlands.

‘This is "a triple win” - for cancer patients, investigators and industry partners’, says Kjetil Tasken from IMPRESS-Norway, ‘as we will generate and gather evidence more rapidly on very rare combinations of diagnosis, mutation and treatment to allow for early implementation of new cancer medicines.’

In a recent article in Nature Communications, published online on the 12 of November, 2021, project group leader Kay Oliver Schink and his coworkers in Harald Stenmark’s group at the Institute for Cancer Research and the Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming (CanCell) identify a new mechanism how the protein Phafin2 can regulate a process called “macropinocytosis”.