Research at Oslo University Hospital

Cell and gene therapy form two of the most dynamic research areas world-wide and provide fundamentally new therapies for diseases without available treatment. A donor consortium consisting of Svanhild and Arne Must´s Foundation for Medical Research (lead donor), RADFORSK oncology research fund and the Norwegian Cancer Society, has committed 50 MNOK to form a Centre for Advanced Cell and Gene therapy (ACT Centre) located in clean room facilities at the OUH. The launching of the centre was covered by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) May 2nd.

The Annual Report from the Institute for Cancer Research for 2020 is now published.
Institute head Kjetil Taskén says: "We have kept the activity up through the pandemic based on the production numbers. You can read about the exciting research by almost 400 people in 25 research groups and 6 core facilities at the ICR. Activities in the CanCell CoE, two KG Jebsen Centres and two OUH strategic research areas and other activities in precision medicine and cell therapy where our researchers are involved are also covered."

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.
An updated list of publications related to COVID-19 research at Oslo University Hospital can be found here.

The Research Council of Norway, Oslo University Hospital, and the Faculty of Medicine, UiO invite researchers to a webinar about funding of health and medical research in Horizon Europe.
Time and place: May 11, 2021 1:00 PM–4:00 PM, on Zoom
Deadline for registration: May 7
The event is co-hosted by Research Council Norway, Oslo University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine at UIO, and is primarily targeted towards researchers at OUS and UiO interested in Horizon Europe and funding opportunities therein.

Radforsk Investment Foundation has granted five research projects a total amount of MNOK 4.95 to further develop exciting research projects within photodynamic treatment and photochemical internalization.
This year, one of the projects has been awarded a total of NOK 3.75 million over three years. It is a project led by researcher Pål Selbo from the Department of Radiation Biology at Institute for Cancer Research entitled «Novel Photobiological Strategies Counteracting Tumor Immune Escape».
Selbo has been interviewed (in Norwegian) for the Radium podcast on basis of the Radforsk support.

A team of researchers from several departments at Oslo University Hospital has described a vaccine-induced syndrome of severe thrombosis and thrombocytopenia found among five patients admitted to OUH. The findings have recently been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and have received national and international attention. Nina H. Schulz and Pål André Holme from the Department of Haematology are first and senior authors respectively.

The first ever conference with focus on FcRn-targeted therapies for autoimmune diseases was recently held digitally. 
Jan Terje Andersen, leader of the Laboratory of Adaptive Immunity and Homeostasis at the Department of Immunology, had the privilege to give the opening remarks, in addition to give one of the main talks where he discussed FcRn biology in light of innovative biomedical technologies developed in his laboratory. In this regard, he gave an exclusive interview with the organizers.

PANCAIM will optimize and integrate genomics and imaging phenomics using artificial intelligence (AI). The aim is to help clinical decision-makers to give the right treatment to the right patients at the right time. The PANCAIM project was granted >8 M€ where >1 M€ was granted OUS.

The Fridtjof Nansen award for excellence in science is for 2021 awarded to Professor Harald Alfred Stenmark for his outstanding research in the field of cellular and molecular biology, with particular focus on cancer research.

This prestigious prize is awarded to a Norwegian scientist, or a scientist residing in Norway, for scientific contributions of a high-level international importance. The award is given to inspire further work.

The award ceremony takes place at the annual meeting of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in May.