Research at Oslo University Hospital

The 5th European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress was arranged in Oslo from June 29 - July 2, 2019. Total number of participants was 6919, the highest ever in the history of EAN and the former EFNS. It was also the largest medical congress so far arranged in Norway.

ERGO, the Epilepsy Research Group of Oslo, was heavily involved in the congress, both with regard to organisationof the meeting and scientifically. Head of ERGO, Erik Taubøll, was Head of the Local Organising Committee and co-chair of the international programme committee.

In a new study, published in Nature Communications, researchers at Oslo University Hospital have demonstrated the activation of light-sensitive drugs by accelerated protons. Until now, such drugs –called photosensitisers (PSs) –had conventionally been used in clinical settings with activation by visible light in a cancer treatment known as photodynamic therapy (PDT). PSs preferentially accumulate in tumours, especially in the brain, due to local destruction of the blood/brain barrier at the tumour site. When the drugs interact with light, they create toxic oxygen by-products that kill the cancerous tissues around them.

Researchers Anita Sveen and Ragnhild A. Lothe at the Department of Molecular Oncology describe in collaboration with gastrointestinal oncologist Scott Kopetz at MD Anderson Cancer Centre (US) the complexity of biomarker-driven precision oncology in colorectal cancer.

Precision medicine is required to manage the heterogeneous drug responses observed in patients with leukemia.

In a recent study published in the journal Leukemia, Sigrid S. Skånland and co-workers at Oslo University Hospital developed a method for dose prediction, which may be implemented in clinical practice.

Three scientists received awards for their outstanding research at a ceremony taking place at Oslo University Hospital August 23rd. 

The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to Ole A. Andreassen. Mette Kalager and Anita Sveen both received the "Early Career Award".

In a recent publication in the journal Cell Reports, Kari-Anne M Frikstad, in team with six international collaborators and her co-workers in Sebastian Patzke's project group at the Institute for Cancer Research, provides new insights on how cells build a functional antenna for sensation of a key developmental signaling pathway required for normal brain development.  

In a recent paper in the journal Autophagy, Dr. Yan Zhen and her co-workers in Harald Stenmark's group at Institute for Cancer Research and Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming (CanCell) show a mechanism for how autophagosomes are sealed, a crucial step in autophagy.

A consortium of University of Oslo, The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) has been granted 19.09 MNOK (about U.S. $2.2M) for a period of three years from the Research Council of Norway through the GLOBVAC (Global Health Vaccination and Research) program for the development of broadly neutralizing antibodies as HIV prevention products.

Funding of research-based innovation in Helse Sør-Øst is intended to provide financial opportunities for good ideas that have been developed through research activities at the hospitals and private institutions in the region. The ideas must be based on research results with the potential for commercialisation and/or benefit for society. 

Application deadline is Thursday, September 5th 2019, 16:00.

Funding of ideas and inventions in this context involves financing an innovation process, that is to say that the innovation funds will be used to support activities that are linked to defined milestones in the innovation process and which ensure that the development of the idea is continued towards implementation.