Research at Oslo University Hospital

A paper entitled "Pan-cancer profiling of tumor-infiltrating natural killer cells through transcriptional reference mapping" was published in the highly ranked journal Nature Immunology on July 2. This work will be an important resource when designing new NK cell therapies.
The authors have been analyzing transcriptional data from 427 patients and 39 datasets, including 7 solid tumor types (lung, brain, skin, pancreas, prostate, breast, sarcoma). They could identify 6 different functional states of tumor-infiltrating NK cells, and the state of the NK cells correlate with survival for cancer patients. 

Tore Skotland and Kirsten Sandvig, Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute for Cancer Research, have together with four international experts on mass spectroscopy (MS) analyses of lipids, published a short comment (2 pages with a supplementary of 2 pages) in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.

The article is entitled “Pitfalls in lipid mass spectroscopy of mammalian samples – a brief guide for biologists”. 

In 2024, the Institute for Cancer Research at Oslo University Hospital turns 70 years old. The institute has more than 380 employees spread over seven sections and constitutes Norway's largest cancer research environment.
The institute marks 70 years with an anniversary symposium at The Hub in Oslo 9-10 September, with support from Hydro's Fund for Cancer Research.
A special highlight will be the opening lecture by Douglas Hanahan, entitled "Hallmarks of Cancer in 2024".
The deadline for early registration is 8 July, and the late registration deadline is 5 August.

A team from the Wireless Sensor Network Research Group at The Intervention Center, led by Prof. Ilangko Balasingham, won the Best Paper Award at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).
The 6-page paper, entitled "Ultrasound-enabled SIMO Channel for Targeted Brain Cancer Chemotherapy", presents a novel scheme for effectively delivering drugs across the blood-brain barrier to treat glioblastoma. It was selected from 2,340 submissions and was among only 13 to receive this prestigious recognition. 

A simple blood test shows whether stomach problems in children and teenagers are likely to be inflammatory bowel disease, as shown in the study results published in the highly-ranked journal Nature Communications.
More and more children in Norway are struggling with stomach and intestinal problems. The symptoms are often not very specific - which makes it difficult to set the correct diagnosis quickly. Norwegian and Swedish researchers are now developing a blood test that measures two fatty substances in the blood to distinguish those children where there is a high probability that the problems are due to an inflammatory bowel disease.

Marte Lie Høivik, professor at the University of Oslo and consultant at Oslo University Hospital, is shared senior author on the new study, which included children from the IBSEN III study. The study has received wide media attention, and has been covered by several major Norwegian news outlets.

Three Oslo University Hospital scientists received prestigous awards for their outstanding research on Friday June 14th.
The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to Kjetil Taskén.
Chloé Beate Steen and Andreas Kleppe both received the "Early Career Award".
The prize money - 400.000 and 200.000 NOK respectively - is earmarked for research activities.

The awards are distributed anually in order to honour excellent scientific work. The awarding process is organized by the hospital's research committee, while an external Scientific Advisory Board has evaluated the candidates. 

In a paper published in Nature Communcations, the laboratory of Professor Jan Terje Andersen and collaborators report on a novel antibody constant region (Fc) variant that is designed to give antibodies broad biodistribution and make them long-acting in the body. These features allow the antibodies to reach the site of action at high concentrations, and the improvements in pharmacokinetics are expected to increase patient convenience, treatment adherence and reduce costs for the healthcare system. This is particularly important for treatment of life-long chronic diseases and for prophylactic treatment of severe infections.

The findings have been covered by several media outlets, including the major Norwegian newspaper VG.

Helse Sør-Øst RHF announces NOK 130 million for health research in the region. In addition, up to NOK 10 million will be allocated targeted funding within prioritised thematic areas, and up to NOK 5 million will be allocated strategic research funding to non-university hospitals.

The application deadline is Wednesday 4th September 2024 at 16:00

For 2025, research funding is available within the following application categories: 

• Doctoral grants 
• Postdoctoral grants 
• Open project support 

In order to stimulate excellent research and draw attention to the hospital's research activity, Oslo University Hospital rewards outstanding publications every half-year.

Six research groups were awarded for their excellent papers published the second half-year of 2023 during a ceremony on June 7th. Each group received NOK 50.000 earmarked for further research, and the prize winners gave short presentations of their main findings.