Rad4 TCR clinical protocol published
NSI meeting 2022
This year our lab participated actively to the NSI annual meeting. Congratulations to all the poster presenters and to our two speakers: Nadia Mensali and Benjamin Caulier who obtained the prize for the best presentation!
Our heroes in action:
Digital Life Conference 2022
Congratulations to the team for the Best Poster Award!
A good collaboration established between NTNU, OUS and ThermoFischer on the CellFit project.
Contact meeting through Digital Life Norway (2022):
Two new publications with group members
A vaccine study with Ultimovacs involving Else Marit Inderberg :
A study with our friends from Cancer Immunology (Smeland/Myklebust team) involving Sébastien Wälchli:
hTERT vaccines efficient accross cancers
We are very happy to be part of this clinical article on hTERT vaccines. Congratulations to Else Marit Inderberg and Nadia Mensali from our team!
Something to listen to for rainy days
Sébastien Wälchli was interviewed by theThe Nordic Cell Therapy Podcast about his vision for CAR therapy and his thoughts can be heard here
New interview in "Healthtalk" (in Norwegian)
New review How CAR T Cells Breathe
Congratulations to Christopher Forcados who published his first article, a review, on CAR T cell metabolism and its detection using Seahorse technology
New review Emerging Biomarkers for Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma
Else Marit Inderberg and Nadia Mensali wrote a review on Immunotherapy in Glioblastom that can be found here
Euronanomed-3 video contest
We are very proud to be part of the NAN-4-TUM consortium (Leader: S. Scala), videos from the different projects have been published, you can vote for ours!
New publication on in vivo CAR experiments
Very happy to share our technical report in Methods in Cell Biology describing our protocols to prepare and test CAR Tc in vivo. A special thanks to our former colleagues Anne Fåne and Marit Myhre for their fantastic work over the years!
Interview about combination immunotherapy from Anna Winge-Main
Interesting interview (in Norwegian) about combination immunotherapy from our lab member Anna Winge-Main who is also an expert clinician on the subject.
PD-L1 based CAR construct
Interview about the licensing of CD37CAR to CellPoint (in Norwegian)
We made the cover
Congratulations to Rafaela Abrantes and our collaborators from the Ceslo Reis laboratory in i3S (Porto) for the nice review on CAR and inovative targets:
A new publication
We are happy to share our this new publication which was the result of a fruitful collaboration between our group and Kjersti Flatmark's team. We here report about a vaccine solution for patients suffering Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). We thank Helse Sør Øst (#2019004) for the support.
Nadia Mensali will give a presentation
Nadia Mensali has been invited by the Hellenic Society of Gene Therapy
and Regenerative Medicine to give a presentation:
"Design and validation of CAR directed against osteosarcoma"
at the
"Gene and Cell Therapies: New Perspectives for old diseases - Web Event" on Friday 26 November. More information can be found here
PIVAC is still alive!
Thanks to the Local Organizing Committee & the International Scientific Committee for this fantastic PIVAC21 meeting in beautiful Granada!
A new publication from our group
We are happy to share our new publication about a modified version of PD-1 receptor, or how to turn something negative to an enhancing molecule. There have been a few reports this year showing technologies similar to ours, suggesting that interest for associated molecules to increase the binding might represent a solution to improve cell -based therapy. We thank all co-authors and of course our support: Helse Sør Øst, The Research Council of Norway and The Norwegian Cancer Society
Two new papers from/in collaboration with our group
Paper 1:
Targeting KRAS mutations with HLA class II-restricted TCRs for the treatment of solid tumors
Paper 2:
Circulating Tumor Cell Persistence Associates with Long-TermClinical Outcome to a Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine inProstate Cancer
Ingrid Jenny Guldvik, Lina Ekseth, Amar U. Kishan, Andreas Stensvold, Else Marit Inderberg and Wolfgang Lilleby
Congratulations to Synne !
We are very proud of Synne Halvorsen Hougsnæs who succesfully defended her Master of Science in Biotechnology:
"CMV-specific Immune Responses Induced by Dendritic Cell Vaccines in Glioblastoma patients
And Clinical Benefit"
The normal protocol was respected:
Defense Flowers Cake
Results on Telomerase vaccine in MM published
Anna Winge-Main and ASCO-2021
Anna Winge-Main, who is medical oncologist (melanoma), but also PhD student in our unit has been interviewed (here) to give an overview of the melanoma studies presented in ASCO-2021:
Congratulation to Clara, our future colleague!
Clara has successfully defended her Master thesis today and will join us next week.
We now know that one should be careful when selecting LB medium.
Credit: C. Forcados laptop at OCCI social area
A new publication from a group member
Congratulations to Anna Winge-Main, PhD student in our unit and MD at the Department of Oncology (OUS), who has published a case report in the British Medical Journal (Case Reports):
Finally on PubMed
Our method to clone CAR from hybridoma is finally cited in Pubmed:
More impotrantly it also present the first anti-Iglambda CAR:
10th World Congress of Melanoma/17th EADO Congres
Anna Winge-Main speaks at the session “Navigating Early-Stage Melanoma: Systemic Treatment Today and in the Future?” at the 10th World Congress of Melanoma/17th EADO Congress Industry Satellite Symposium 15th of April 2021
https://worldmelanoma2021.com//files/2021/04/28-Final-Programme-WCM-2021.pdf
New article
Congratulations to our collaborator and friend Andres Maturana for his last publication integrating some of our design (NB: this is not immunotherapy!)
Norway Grants Lecture: The development of cell-based immunotherapy to treat cancer
News Course on advanced therapy for EATRIS
Two new publications
Jubileumsintervju Inven2 10 år: Else Marit Inderberg – Inven2
Inven2 celebrates 10 years of collaboration with leading senior researchers bringin new products and services on market. Therefore, find out more informations about Dr. Else-Marit Inderberg's (group leader and head of immunomonitoring) interview here !
Else Marit Inderberg på laben. Foto: Elisabeth Kirkeng Andersen.
We are happy to welcome our new labmate : Seahorse !
The Seahorse XFe96 Analyzer (Agilent) measures the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) of live cells in a 96-well plate format.
OCR and ECAR rates are key indicators of mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis as well as ATP production rate. Together these measurements will provide a clear view of cellular metabolic function in cultured cells such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)- and T-cell Receptor (TCR)-modified cells !
More informations here !
Credit: Janne Nestvold (OCCI)
Solveig Mjelstad Olafsrud (Engineer) and Benjamin Caulier (Postdoc) will take care of it !
We are looking for a motivated Master student !
Immunotherapy & Biotechnology: Validation of humanized Chimeric Antigen Receptors targeted against solid tumour
A Master position is available for 2021 at the Unit of Translational Research, Department of Cellular Therapy, Oslo University Hospital (OUS) Radiumhospitalet under the supervision of Sébastien Wälchli (Senior researcher, group leader).
We offer: (1) a position in a dynamic environment within a modern/fully equipped facility (Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator next to Radium hospital) and (2) the possibility to use advanced technology.
Successful candidates might be sent to an international conference.
Find out more here !
Any questions about the position can be sent to the following e-mail address: sebastw@rr-research.no
Virtual Event: What Does it Take to Impact Innovation?
Join the Oslo Cancer Cluster virtual event presented during Oslo Innovation Week (September 2020) and hear from stakeholders who inspire innovation, protect innovation and provide the necessary tools for innovation.
Found out more at OCCi website !
Credit: OCCi
Vanishing data !
This is how lab discussions emerge ;)
Here is Patrik Vernhoff (Postdoc NFR, our favorite biostatistician !) air-presenting vanishing expression profil on PCA.
Credits: SW
Lab's Journal CLub - 14th of September 2020
Don't miss the journal club of Monday, 14th of September 2020.
Benjamin CAULIER, Postdoc, will present an article published in Immunity that deals with sustainability of CAR expression and response persistence using Ubiquitination modifications.
Credits: From Wentao Li et al:, Article in Immunity Volume 53, ISSUE 2, P456-470.e6, August 18, 2020
The journal club will take place in the usual 5th floor meeting room after the lab meeting (around 12h). See you there !
The Translational Research Unit will present some papers at the Immunology Journal Club on Friday 4th of September 2020 !
Hakan Köksal will present: Designed protein logic to target cells with precise combinations of surface antigens (Marc J. Lajoie et al., 2020) (https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/19/science.aba6527.full)
Nadia Mensali will present: An RNA vaccine drives immunity in checkpoint-inhibitor-treated melanoma ( Ugur Sahin et al., 2020) (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2537-9)
The Zoom link will be uptaded soon, make sure to schedule this event in your agenda !
The Translational Research Unit has licensed NK-TCR to Zelluna Immunotherapy
The Norwegian biotech Zelluna Immunotherapy, based on a licence from our Translational Research Unit (Group leaders: Else Marit Inderberg and Sebastien Wälchli's group), received NOK 83 million to pursue their development on TCR-redirected NK cells !
We are very happy that an innovation developped five years ago by the early team (G. Gaudernack, G. Kvalheim, EM Inderberg and S. Wälchli) is now being developed as a therapeutic product. We thank our co-workers for their hard work, Inven2 for their support in the commercial development, and NFR, Helse Sør-Øst and Kreftforeningen for their financial support and guidance.
The team in Boston concluded that lobster is better than business:
The concept (with the old name):
Design: P. Dillard
Find more about this here !
New review on TCR therapy against melanoma
We published a new review in Scandinavian Journal of Immunology on how to adapt TCR redirected T-cells therapy to fight melanoma!
Make sure to have a look here!
New review!
We published a review on putative targets in ovarian cancer for CAR therapy in Scandinavian Journal of Immunology! Make sure to have a look here!
New publication on how to use colorectal cyst for CAR development
We published a new article in BMC Biotechnology on how to use colorectal cyst as a tool for the pre-clinical development of CAR T-cells.
Make sure to check the article here!
Hakan Köksal, Ph.D.
Hakan Köksal successfully defended his Ph.D. entitled “Novel designs and approaches in CAR T cells” Thursday 28th May.
All of his colleagues are proud of his work and his achievements!
PhD defense: Hakan Köksal
M.Sc Hakan Köksal at Institute of Clinical Medicine will be defending the thesis “Novel designs and approaches in CAR T cells” for the degree of PhD (Philosophiae Doctor).
Due to the current pandemic situation, the University of Oslo is closed and the public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom here.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
New case report!
Else Marit Inderberg and Nadia Mensali took part in a paper showing the treatment of posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disease by using retransplantation, make sure to check it here!
New papers

Gene Editing in B-Lymphoma Cell Lines Using CRISPR/Cas9 Technology

Next Generation of Adoptive T Cell Therapy Using CRISPR/Cas9 Technology: Universal or Boosted?
Finally, Nicholas Casey published recently a paper on the use of RNAi with TCR transfer to enhance safety and efficiency. Follow the guide!
EATRIS Annual Meeting, Lisbon 11-12 Feb 2020
We participated to the EATRIS annual meeting in Lisbon and presented our work. We thank all the team for their great work and their commitment in this infrastructure.
Check our commentary in the Journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
Else Marit Inderberg is talking about immunotherapy to forskning.no
A recent article in Nature Immunology showed a new type of T-cells that could improve cell-based therapies.
Forskning has asked Else Marit her opinion about it and about the latest developments in this field. Make sure to have a look here!
New review !
A new review from Else Marit Inderberg and Sebastien Wälchli was published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. The review described how we can isolate and identify therapeutic TCRs from long-term surviving patients.
Make sure to have a look here!
A new Master in the lab Amanda Ruud succesfully passed her Master Thesis on the 18/12
Amanda Ruud defended her Master at the University of Oslo, Wednesday (18/12). Her thesis title was: "Identification and pre-clinical assessment of patient-derived TCRs for solid tumor immunotherapy"
Pierre Dillard won the 2019 NSI prize for the best oral presentation!
Pierre won the award with his talk entitled: "Targeting telomerase with an MHC class II restricted TCR for cancer immunotherapy". Make sure to have a look at his abstract!
Meet the lab at the annual NSI meeting!
We will be at the annual NSI meeting, the 29th of November!
We will talk about our latest progress on CAR and TCR therapy. See you there!
1st Meeting ASEICA-ASPIC on Immunotherapy! Next time in Portugal!
Sebastien Wälchli was invited at the 1st meeting ASEICA-ASPIC on Immunotherapy to talk about TCR based ACT.
Interview of Sebastien Walchli for Inven2
Sebastien Walchli, a group leader in our department, gave an interview to the technical transfer office of the hospital: Inven2.
Make sure to check it here !
We will be at CICON 2019 in Paris !
Emmanuelle Benard will present our last improvements on CD37 CAR T-cell therapy. Make sure to check the program of the conference and her abstract !
New publication !
Nadia Mensali and Marit R. Myhre published a new study entitled: "Preclinical assessment of transiently TCR redirected T cells for solid tumour immunotherapy". A copy of the study published in Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy can be found here.
Two news, one stone !
We were at the last PIVAC (Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer) 2019 !
Else Marit and Hedvig presented our most recent developments !
Make sure to check their abstracts !
Yesterday Lizet Baken successfully defended her Bachelor Thesis at the Avans University of Applied Sciences.
Part of this thesis was performed in our lab where she has been working on an anti-Ig-lambda CAR.
Congratulations Lizet, we are all very proud of you!
New publication on CAR manufacturing !
We will be at CIMT 2019
First norwegian CAR publication!
A new paper from our collaborators !
Our collaborators published a new paper on TIGIT and PD-1 as markers of reduced effector function of T-cells in B-cell lymphoma.
Make sure to have a look here !
We will be at AACR 2019
Gunnar Kvalheim, Hakan Köksal and Pierre Dillard will be at the next AACR meeting (29th of March to 3rd of April, Atalanta) to talk about new developments in CAR.
Hakan will present a novel combination method for IGKCAR that prevents B-cell aplasia.
Pierre will present the pre-clinical validation of CD37CAR, an alternative to CD19CAR.
Make sure to have a look!
We will be at EACR-Defense is the best attack conference !
Pierre Dillard will present our rescent work on the pre-clinical validation of CD37 CAR T-cells in Barcelona (11 - 13 March 2019).
Make sure to take a look at the abstract and at the conference website !
New paper on redirected NK cells
We published a new paper on redirected NK cells, transduced with TCR.
Make sure to take a look at the paper here !
New publication on the use of invariant chain!
New publication from Nadia Mensali in OncoImmunology.
This article decribe the loading of MCHI and II molecules by using CD74 constructs.
Make sure to check it out here!
We published a new review !
We published a new review on the treatment of osteosarcoma by CAR therapy.
Make sure to have a looke here !
We published a new protocol !
We published a new protocol on the assessment of CAR activity by spheroids. Have a look at our paper here and on the OCCi website news.
A new Postdoc joined us !
Emmanuelle Benard who did her PhD in Biophysics and Immunology in Marseille, just joined us !
She will be in charge of the development of new CAR T-cells.
First JOVE shooting
We had our first JOVE shooting on a new metod to generate spheroid for CAR T-cells screening.
Make sure to give it a look (once it is out) !
PIVAC 2018 was held in Oslo
PIVAC 2018 was held in Oslo, co-organized by the department of Cell Therpay. The conference permitted to share new advance in the field of vaccination and future prospects for immunotherapy.
We received a Thai delegation from the medecine faculty of Khon Kaero
We will be at CIMT 2018!
Sebastien Wälchli invited speaker at the 25th Porto Cancer Meeting
We will be at AACR 2018
Pierre Dillard will attend the 2018 meeting of the American Association for Cncer Research (AACR). He will present our recent work on universal killer, make sure to have a look !
New publication from our group in Cancer Immunology
Human c-SRC kinase (CSK) overexpression makes T cells dummy
Patient safety upon immunotherapy treatment is a challenge that still need to be adressed.
In this publication we report how by affecting c-SRC kinase we can make T-cells "dummy": effector cells are still able to recognize and bind to the target but unable to carry on with their activation. This mechanism could potentially open the way for a safe-lock system permitting to reduce off-target toxicity.
Image from: Ellen Tenstad/Science Shaped
T lymphocytes killing melanoma cells....
Nadia Mensali won the presentation prize at the annual NSI meeting!
Nadia Mensali was awarded with the presentation prize for her talk on the Universal Killer! See below to learn more
We will be at SITC 2017 !
Nadia Mensali and Pierre Dillard will attend the 2017 meeting of the Society for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (SITC). They will present our recent work on universal killer and CD4 Adoptive cell therapy, make sure to have a look !
We published a new paper in Scientific Reports !
Our team published a new paper about using TCR in CAR design, make sure to have a look here !
Our research team is well represented in the new Olo Cancer Cluster presentation book!
We will be at PIVAC 2017 at the end of September
Marit Renee Myhre has been selected to give a talk at the 17th International Conference on Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer (PIVAC 2017) in Loutraki, Corinth, Greece
She will present our latest work on our new CD4-based therapy, make sure to have a look at the abstract if you want to learn more !
New publication: therapeutic T-cell receptors in healthy donor blood, is safety predictable?
Our team has published a new paper in Translational Cancer Research:
New publication in our team: therapeutic T-cell receptors in healthy donor blood, is safety predictable? by Hakan Köksal and Sébastien Wälchli.
They are commenting a paper published in 2017 in Blood by Jahn et al. that presents a novel TCR-based therapy trageting intracellular transcription factor. Make sure to have a look at both papers!