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.

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

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).

At the recent 59th Winter Meeting of the Norwegian Bioscience Society (NBS) at Storefjell Mountaln Resort, Kirsten Sandvig and Tore Skotland from Institute for Cancer Research were announced as new honorary members of NBS. Sandvig and Skotland have successful careers in the biosciences and have contributed importantly to the activities of NBS.

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.