Research at Oslo University Hospital

Karl Johan Malmberg from the Department of Cancer Immunology at Institute for Cancer Research has received Dr. Ragnar Mørk's Prize 2019 for his excellent research on natural killer (NK) cells. Malmberg's research has improved our understanding of how NK cells are activated, which opens new possibilities for using NK cells in cancer immunotherapy. Malmberg is currently exploring this concept in ongoing clinical trials.

Vessela Kristensen is appointed Head of Research at the Section for Research and Development at the Department of Medical Genetics. 
During her 23 years at the Institute for Cancer research (1996-2019), she has lead multiple projects and attracted external funding for more than 40 mill. NOK leading 9 PhD students as a main supervisor. In the last 13 years (20006 - 2019) she has been professor I at Institute for clinical medicine, Campus Ahus, where she supervised additional 6 PhD students and generated external funding for 21 million NOK. "Now it is time for something new" says Vessela Kristensen.

Highly multiplexed analysis of cell suspensions or tissue sections is now available at the Institute of Cancer Research. The Flow Cytometry Core facility has recently installed a 30-parameter fluorescence flow cytometer (FACSSymphony A5) and a 135-channel mass cytometer (Helios) with a state-of-the-art tissue imager (Hyperion). The possibility of interrogating more than 20 fluorescence-markers or more than 50 metal-markers simultaneously in millions of individual cells can unveil new cell types, functions and biomarkers for all research areas. The spatial context of tissue microenvironments across complex cellular phenotypes is empowered by the imaging capability of up to 37 protein, RNA and/or DNA markers simultaneously with 1 µm resolution. You can bring archival FFPE tissue and correlate the mass cytometry imaging with all the other data collected for those patients.

Åslaug Helland, head of the Translational studies on solid tumours reserach group at the Department of Cancer Genetics at Oslo University Hospital, receives 14,2 mill NOK from The national programme for clinical therapy research - KLINBEFORSK.
The supported project is entitled "Durvalumab After RadioTherapy – the DART-study". The purpose is to see if Durvalumab and radiation therapy can delay the worsening of disease in patients with non-small cell lung cancer normally treated with sequential chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy.

NB: text expanded on Nov 4th, with more details

Anders Jahre's Awards for Medical Research honor research of outstanding quality in basic and clinical medicine. The prizes are awarded by the University of Oslo and are among the largest within Nordic biomedical research. 
Lars Tjelta Westlye from NORMENT – Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research at OUS and UiO is one of the two 2019 receipients of the Anders Jahre's medical award to young researchers for his work on how innate characteristics and personality traits can explain the predisposition to mental disorders. 

The prize ceremony took place on Thursday 31st of October at 6:00 PM in the University Aula, Karl Johans gate 47, while the Jahre lectures were held on the same day at 10:15 AM hrs in Professorboligen.

The annual research group seminar for ERGO (Epilepsy Research Group of Oslo) was held at Kleivstua from 17^th to 18^thof October 2019 with a total of 23 participants. Professor Bernt Engelsen from Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, served as external evaluator. He opened the seminar with a lecture presenting the different epilepsy research projects ongoing in Bergen. Possible collaboration between Oslo and Bergen was discussed.

The newly approved Prosigna test for determining the need for adjuvant therapy for newly operated breast cancer patients is based on research performed at the Institute for Cancer Research. The Prosigna Breast Cancer Prognostic Gene Signature Assay (formerly called the PAM50 test), made by NanoString, is a genomic test that analyzes the activity of certain genes in early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. The Prosigna assay measures the expression of 50 genes (called the PAM50 gene signature) to estimate the risk of distant recurrence of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.