Official opening of the KG Jebsen Colorectal Cancer Research Centre

The event was held at Holmenkollen Park Hotel for all the members of the new Centre as well as invited guests (see programme). Present from the board of directors of the Foundation were also Birger Magnus and Borger Lenth, as well as the general manager of the Foundation, Kåre Rommetveit, who presented the Foundation’s strategy for supporting medical research.

This is the only Jebsen Centre in Oslo that has Oslo University Hospital as its main host institution. Prof. Sigbjørn Smeland, head of the hosting Division of Cancer, Surgery and Transplantation, said in his talk that the Centre was an excellent example of how to organise and succeed in translational research within a Comprehensive Cancer Centre. The rector of the University of Oslo, Prof. Ole Petter Ottersen, underlined the many challenges in building real integrated research among disciplines, but also the necessity of doing so to combat global health challenges such as colorectal cancer, a disease which kills seven hundred thousand individuals annually. 

The Centre addresses both early detection strategies and novel treatment strategies, and got off to a flying start with the article published by the Bretthauer group in the NEJM on the same day.

The Centre’s guest lecturer for the day, Prof. Hans Olav Adami from Harvard, presented his ideas on why Harvard is ranked as a world leading institution of research and which factors we need to address in Scandinavia. Among others, he pointed out the importance of using the strength that lies in the public health system.

The director of Research and Innovation of the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, John Torgils Vaage, congratulated on the opening of the Centrea and explained that excellent clinical research argued strongly for prioritization of increased research funding from the Health Authority.