Welcome to Nina Iversen’s project group: Functional Genomics in Coagulation and Cancer
Our work is to get a better understanding of the connection between the coagulation system and cancer development with a special focus on coagulation factor V (FV). The connection between cancer and increased risk of thrombosis is well established. Thrombosis is the second leading cause of death after the cancer itself. Cancer progression has been linked with deregulation and cell-signalling of coagulation factors. And tumour cells have been reported to directly activate the haemostatic system by producing procoagulants and microparticles. Thus, studying the role and regulation of coagulation factors associated with cancer may provide important insights in cancer development and treatment response.
The coagulation factor V (FV) is a central cofactor in coagulation. However, alternative roles for FV are now emerging. We have reported FV gene polymorphisms that were associated with breast cancer and cancer associated thrombosis. Moreover, we recently demonstrated that FV expression was enriched in breast tumors and that FV expression was linked to tumor aggressiveness and patient survival. But the role of FV in different cancer processes remains unknown.We are also involved in functional studies of mutants discovered in patients with coagulation disorders, and from these studies we can gain further insight into the functional role of the coagulation factors.We use breast cancer cohorts to perform studies at different molecular levels, and experimental cell models in our studies.
Our project group have a close collaboration with Vessela Kristensen’s group at AMG, with scientists and clinicians from Department of Hematology (P.M Sandset and B. Stavik), Department of Medical Biochemistry (C.E Henriksson), and Centre for Rare Disorders (Heidi Glosli) at OUH in addition to international collaborators.
Our goals
Our goals are to disseminate the mechanisms behind coagulation factors role in cancer progression and treatment response, and also to identify the genetic cause and elucidate the molecular mechanism in patients with rare inherited coagulation disorders causing thrombosis or bleeding.