Three Master's students defended their theses in May/June

Information about the three Master's projects:

Arina Surko

Arina Surko defended her thesis at Department of informatics, Faculty of mathematics and natural sciences, University of Oslo. Her thesis, entitled "Opportunities and challenges in applying long-read sequencing in cancer research", was supervised by Professors Johan Ivar Sæbø, Bjarne Johannessen, and Rolf I. Skotheim. Arina was the inaugural graduate of the newly established master's programme in Digitalization in the health sector. Her Master's project encompassed both a theoretical exploration of the implementation of long-read sequencing technologies in the context of cancer diagnostics and a practical bioinformatics task. This task involved the integrated analysis of RNA transcript structures in prostate cancer using long-read sequencing data and its correlation with local DNA point mutations and polymorphisms.

Ida Sophie Gjøstøl Strømsvåg

Ida Sophie Gjøstøl Strømsvåg attended the Master's program at the Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo. Her thesis is entitled, "The activity of PARP inhibitors in preclinical models of colorectal cancer". Her main supervisor was Kushtrim Kryeziu and Edward Leithe was co-supervisor. Ida's Master thesis explored the therapeutic potential of PARP inhibitors in preclinical models of colorectal cancer (CRC), both as standalone treatments and in combination with conventional chemotherapy such as fluorouracil/leucovorin regimen and experimental targeted therapy targeting ATR Serine/Threonine Kinase. Her research also focused on understanding the mechanisms behind PARP inhibitor sensitivity, particularly highlighting the significance of TP53-mediated RAD51 downregulation in this process.

Joachim Jordal Moe

Joachim Jordal Moe attended the Master's program at the Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo. The title of his thesis is "New insights into the regulation of Connexin43-based gap junctions by the E3 ubiquitin ligase SMURF2". Edward Leithe was the main supervisor on this project, while Kushtrim Kryeziu was co-supervisor. In his Master's project, Joachim investigated the role of the ubiquitin system in the regulation of intercellular communication via gap junctions. This type of intercellular communication has important roles in controlling cell growth and tissue homeostasis, and it is often lost during cancer development. The absence of intercellular communication via gap junctions may contribute to increased cancer cell growth and may also affect their response to radio- and chemotherapy. The results obtained in this Master's project contributes to our understanding of how this form of intercellular communication is interrupted during cancer pathogenesis.