This department is composed of 15 research groups and 4 project groups. We are characterized by excellence in enabling technologies within molecular and computational biology and a strong focus on curiosity driven basic science with a track record of ground-breaking research. Fundamental discoveries of enzyme activities have inspired a wide research portfolio spanning early development to aging and implications for human disease during the entire life course.

This strong focus on fundamental research has resulted in the section being awarded a Centre of excellence, Centre for Embryology and Healthy Development (CRESCO) that started 1st July 2023.

Our research strategy is aligned with the overall aims at Oslo University Hospital and Clinic of Laboratory Medicine. In addition we have priorities in three pillars; ground-breaking research, development of talent and innovation.

Head of department: Fredrik Müller
Head of research section: Hilde Loge Nilsen

News:

News about our researchers

Research groups:

RNA/DNA base modifications	Stem Cells, Ageing and Cancer	Fungal and Bacterial Infections Research Group
Cellular Responses to DNA Damage	Cell and tissue dynamics	Genome and Epigenome Regulation in Embryo Development, Ageing and Disease
Structural Biology and DNA repair	Clinical Virology Research Group	Stem Cell Dynamics and RNA Regulation
Laboratory for Dynamic Gene Regulation	Virology Research Group	Genome Instability in Ageing and Disease
Targeting tumors of central nervous system	Genome Dynamics	Bacterial Defense Systems and Antimicrobial Resistance Group

This project aims to combat the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis, zoonotic hepatitis E, in a One Health perspective. More than 30 European countries participate with a total of 150 members joining.
Susanne Dudman is representing Norway and is leading work group 2, focusing on clinical management. The group aims to establish robust and comparable clinical trial frameworks, standardize outcome measurements, and support the identification and development of antiviral therapies.

Annikka Polster, Nicola Montaldo and Hilde Nilsen, from the Genome instability in disease and ageing group at OUS, has together with their collaborators identified a blood-based “signature” that may reveal Parkinson’s disease (PD) 10–20 years before classic motor symptoms like tremors and stiffness appear. The results were recently published in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease.
Parkinson’s is usually diagnosed only after many of the brain cells that control movement are already lost. This study asked whether early molecular warning signs can be detected in the blood long before diagnosis. 

Madeleine Fosslie, researcher in the Genome and Epigenome Regulation in Embryo Development, Ageing and Disease group at the Department of Microbiology, and Erkut Ilaslan, researcher at University of Copenhagen, are first authors on this Nature Communications paper. This study sheds light on the fundamental biology of how the genome is restructured and reprogrammed during the transition from egg to early embryo.
This study examines how DNA is organized and regulated in mouse egg cells and very early embryos by following a protein called H2A.Z, one of the proteins around which DNA is wrapped inside the cell. 

Lorena Arranz, leader of the Stem Cells, Ageing and Cancer group and Deputy Director of CRESCO, and Vincent Cuminetti, researcher in her group, are first and last authors of this Nature Communications paper.

The team investigated a cell surface sensor called SUCNR1 (the succinate receptor) and how it affects blood stem cells and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). They found that SUCNR1 acts like a brake on blood stem cell activity and helps prevent leukemia from progressing. 

Lorena Arranz, leader of the Stem Cells, Ageing and Cancer research group at the Department of Microbiology and Deputy Centre Director of CRESCO, has received 9 million NOK in funding from Helse Sør-Øst RHF for her project NEUROTARGET: The nervous system as a druggable vulnerability in myeloid blood cancers.

Helse Sør-Øst RHF has awarded regional research funding to 96 research projects starting in 2026. The projects cover a wide range of disciplines and aim to contribute new knowledge and improved patient care. Lorena Arranz received funding from the thematic open structure, available to all research areas in the specialist healthcare services.

Emma Lång, member of the "Cell and tissue dynamics research group" at the Department of Microbiology, has received 9 million NOK in funding from Helse Sør-Øst RHF for her project "Navigating the Tunnel: Keratinocyte Dynamics & Therapeutic Targeting of IL-17 in Hidradenitis Suppurativa".

This interdisciplinary study aims to uncover the underlying cellular mechanisms of the chronic inflammatory skin disease, Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS). HS is a debilitating disease that severely impacts patients’ quality of life, with current treatments being insufficient and late diagnosis complicating care.

A research team led by Arne Søraas at Oslo University Hospital is competing for more than one billion NOK in an international XPRIZE contest to demonstrate that treatment with young blood plasma can slow the aging processes. The project’s primary aim is to investigate whether plasma from young donors can stabilize or reduce cognitive decline in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. The idea may sound like science fiction, but it builds on longstanding animal experiments in which socalled parabiosis showed that blood from young animals can produce measurable improvements in the brain function of older animals.