Lecturer: Dr. Maria A. Blasco, Director of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)
Head of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group – CNIO
Title of her talk: Targeting cellular immortality in cancer
Time and place: Friday, 19 April 2024, 10:30-11:30 in the Auditorium, Institute for Cancer Research, K-Building, Radiumhospitalet
Host: Kjetil Taskén
Researcher Audun Kvalvaag at Department of Molecular Cell Biology (MCB) and Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming (CanCell) is a specialist on activation of cytotoxic T cells, and he has recently been involved in collaborations with Elliot Philips in Xiang-Peng Kong´s group at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, and with Pablo Céspedes and Megat Hamid at Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Oxford Institute, University of Oxford. This has resulted in articles in two highly prestigious immunology journals, Science Immunology and Nature Immunology. Both papers elucidate mechanisms involved in T cell mediated tumour control and may represent novel avenues for immunotherapeutic cancer treatment.
The long-term collaboration between Department of Molecular Cell Biology (Iversen/Sandvig and collaborators) and Department of Tumor Biology (Mælandsmo group) has resulted in a new article published in International Journal of Nanomedicine (impact factor 8.0). Remya Valsalakumari is the first author and Tore-Geir Iversen the last and communicating author. The data show promising results following injection of cabazitaxel-loaded polyalkyl cyanoacrylate nanoparticles in mice bearing patient derived xenografts of triple negative breast cancer. The nanoparticles gave a strong effect both on the tumor and on the tumor-associated myeloid compartment, which probably boost the anti-tumor response.
Cancer Grand Challenges (CGC) is a funding initiative announced every second year that is co-founded by the two largest funders of cancer research in the world - Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US - to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges. Five new global teams were recently selected to receive up to $25m (275 mill NOK) each over five years. Johanna Olweus and her research group, the Experimental Immunotherapy Group at the Department of Cancer Immunology, are partners of the MATCHMAKERS team, focussed on deciphering the T-cell receptor cancer-recognition code. This is the first time a Nordic scientist is part of a CGC team, and the news was covered by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
Monica Baumann-Larsen from the Department of Research and Innovation at the Division of Clinical Neuroscience at OUH has together with psychology researcher Helle Stangeland from the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) submitted a doctorate in the project "PATHWAY - Children's pathways after trauma for health and well-being through adolescence and young adulthood".
Here, they show that young people exposed to traumatic childhood events use more painkillers than others, and question whether this is the right treatment for headaches, body aches and psychological problems. The findings have recently been presented in an extensive feature article in the major Norwegian newspaper VG.
Professor Johanna Olweus, Head of the Experimental Immunotherapy Group at the Institute for Cancer Research, has been extensively interviewed for a feature article in "The Scientist" magazine, entitled "Next-generation CAR and TCR Cancer Therapies". In this piece of excellent scientific journalism, she goes through findings and mechanisms that she and group have exploited to develop innovative new concepts for T-cell based immunotherapies, and why she is optimistic that TCR T cell therapies will be effective also in solid cancer.
Prehospital treatment is of great importance for the outcome of patients and is receiving increasing research attention. This year's Newcomer Award winner, Mona Guterud, was honored at the research seminar for Division of Emergencies and Critical Care and the Divison of Prehospital Services at Oslo University Hospital, February 14th.
Mona Guterud, along with her team, has been recognized for their contribution in addressing the need for clinical decision tools to assess acute prehospital strokes. Their research project titled "Prehospital screening of acute stroke with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (ParaNASPP)" conducted a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized controlled trial. The results of their study were published in Lancet Neurology, showcasing the effectiveness of their approach.
Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is a severe and chronic liver disease, characterized by inflammation in the bile ducts. There is no effective treatment, and the disease is the leading indication for liver transplantation in Norway. Scientists at the Norwegian PSC Research Center (NoPSC) have now provideded another piece in the scientific puzzle. The new discovery, published in Gastroenterology, provides an important new research direction. Xiaojun Jiang is first author and Espen Melum is senior author.
The findings are presented in a comprehensive popular science news article published on the UiO home page.
Oslo University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet (KI) have entered a postdoctoral partnership with AstraZeneca. The aim is to improve lung and breast cancer care through AI-driven precision diagnostics.
In Oslo, we are welcoming Anna Christina Garvert as a postdoc in lung cancer, and Francisco Peña has been selected and started at KI working on breast cancer. They will be developing AI-based tools for precision medicine in cancer, utilizing existing diagnostic and clinical data to enhance patient outcomes.