Collaborators
Key local collaborators
Research Institute for Internal Medicine (RIIM)
The research groups led by Espen Melum and Johannes Hov respectively are located at RIIM and several collaborative projects are established with the groups of, among others, Prof. Marius Trøseid, Prof. Thor Ueland and Prof. Bente Halvorsen.
Department of Transplantation Medicine (ATX)
The Clinical Liver Research group Oslo, led by Trine Folseraas, is located at ATX, and Prof. Pål-Dag Line and Dr. Bjarte Fosby collaborate with NoPSC on projects related to liver transplantation in PSC and induced murine models of cholangitis.
Department of Liver, Pancreatic and Children’s Surgery
We collaborate with Prof. Sheraz Yaqub, Knut-Jørgen Labori and other co-workers in the Section of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery on PSC and cholangoicarcionoma research and biobanking.
Department of Rheumatology, Dermatology and Infectious diseases Rheumatologists
Prof. Øyvind Molberg and Dr. Anna-Maria Hoffmann-Vold collaborate with NoPSC on immunology and microbiome studies.
Department of Pathology
Dr. Henrik Reims and Dr. Krzysztof Grzyb are both involved in the histological and immunohisto-chemical evaluation of tissue samples from PSC patients and samples from experimental mouse models. Prof. Frode Jahnsen is a collaborator on microbiome studies.
Department of Gastroenterology
IBD research group leader Prof. Marte Lie Høivik is an important collaborator on IBD related projects together with Department Head Ass. Prof. Vendel Kristensen and Prof. Asle Medhus (leader of the Division of Medicine at OUH). Liver research group leader Prof. Håvard Midgard is a key collaborator for projects related to advanced ultrasound modalities.
Department of Comparative Medicine
For many years, NoPSC has had a close and productive collaboration with the Department Head Ass. Prof. Henrik Rasmussen and the staff at the animal facility.
Department for Medical Biochemistry, Metabolomics and Lipidomics
Section leader Dr. Katja B. Prestø Elgstøen and Dr. Helge Rootwelt and the Metabolomics and metabolic molecular biology research group collaborate identifying the causative agent (pruritogen) or pathways of cholestatic itch.
Department of Infectious Diseases
Dr. Dag-Henrik Reikvam is a key collaborator on gut microbiome studies.
Department of Medical Genetics
The Immunogenetics group, led by Prof. Benedicte A. Lie is involved in several projects related to the further characterization of the HLA association in PSC.
Institute for Cancer Research
The Epigenetics Research Group led by Prof. Guro Lind, at the Institute of Cancer Medicine is a key partner in ongoing projects targeting early diagnostic strategies for cholangiocarcinoma in PSC. The work is conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Hege M. Vedeld. Collaborative projects are also ongoing with Prof. Ragnhild Lothe’s group (colorectal cancer) and Prof. Jon Amund Kyte at Dept of Cancer immunology (microbiome therapy).
Department of Radiology
The involvement of the Department of Radiology at Rikshospitalet in the prospective follow-up of PSC patients has been crucial for the success of the initiative. We are particularly grateful to Dr. Andreas Abildgaard, Dr. Gunter Kemmerich and Dr. Ida Björk for their active contributions.
Department of Paediatric
Research Department head Ass. Prof. Runar Almaas is an important collaborator on liver transplant research and pediatric PSC, and Dr. Gareth Sullivan on regenerative medicine.
The Center of Excellence Hybrid Technology Hub (HTH)
HTH are valuable collaborators on lipidomics in PSC. Resent work on organ on a chip includes close collaboration with Prof. Hanne Scholz, Center director Prof. Stefan Krauss, Dr. Aleksandra Aizenshtadt and Dr. Petter Angell Olsen.
Key national collaborators
Akershus University Hospital
NoPSC group leader Prof Kristin K. Jørgensen is affiliated with the Department of Gastroenterology at Akershus University Hospital and is responsible for their Clinical Trial unit in Hepatology, encompassing investigator - and industry- initiated clinical trials. Prof. Anne Negård and Dr. Aida Kapic Lunder at the Department of Radiology are important contributors and collaborators in MRI studies in PSC.
Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital, Bergen
The NoPSC Clinical Research Group in Bergen, led by Mette Vesterhus, is located here. Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital is the responsible institution for the data registry and the biobank of the National network for autoimmune liver diseases and the Norwegian part of ScandPSC. The NoPSC research group also engage in other strong collaborations at Haraldsplass.
Haukeland University Hospital and University of Bergen
For the prospective PSC cohort and advanced imaging modalities there is a close collaboration with Prof. Odd Helge Gilja and several other researchers at the Section for Gastroenterology and the Norwegian Centre of Excellence in Gastrointestinal Ultrasonography, at the Medical Department at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen.
Bevital AS
Prof. Per Magne Ueland and co-workers at BEVITAL are important collaborators in projects related to metabolomic biomarkers, including biomarkers of microbial function.
Key international collaborators
The Nordic Liver Transplant Group
Collaborators in Helsinki (Dr. Arno Nordin), Stockholm (Dr. Carl Jorns), Gothenburg (Ass. Prof. William Bennet) and Copenhagen (Dr. Allan Rasmussen) are involved in several projects using data from the Nordic Liver Transplant Registry.
Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Prof. Annika Bergquist is a close collaborator on clinical projects in PSC and is also participating in our genetics studies. Prof. Bergquist is also a part of the management group of the Strategic Prospective Scandinavian PSC Biobank. Prof. Niklas Björkström is involved in projects relating to human immunology in PSC.
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Prof. Bäckhed, at the Molecular and Clinical Medicine department at Wallenberg laboratory, provides expertise on gut microbiota, metabolism and gnotobiotic animals and he have been a collaborator on gut microbiota studies in mice. Dr. Antonio Molinaro is also a close collaborator as new group leader within clinical and experimental hepatology in Gothenburg.
Uppsala University, Sweden
Prof. Daniel Globisch is an important collaborator in the Department of Chemistry for Life Sciences, providing unique expertise on the biochemistry of microbial metabolites. Shared Uppsala/NoPSC postdoc Alejandro Chinillach works on joint projects in the Globisch lab.
Nordic BioScience, Denmark
Morten Karsdal, CEO of Nordic Biosciences in Denmark, has focused his research on the discovery and development of novel biochemical markers of fibrosis. NoPSC collaborates with Nordic BioScience on several projects related to the characterization of fibrosis and the development of new, targeted, PSC-specific fibrosis markers as prognostic tools in PSC, in work particularly involving Dr. Diana Leeming.
Institute for Clinical and Molecular Biology, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany
Prof. Stefan Schreiber and Prof. Andre Franke’s groups in the German excellence cluster “Inflammation at interfaces” are involved in technically advanced projects within the genetic and metagenomic projects. We also have a fruitful ongoing collaboration with Dr. Hesham El Abd and Dr. Aya Mahdy.
University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany
Prof. Peter Schirmacher, Head of Pathology at the University Hospital Heidelberg, is a world-leading specialist in hepato-biliary pathology. Together with Prof. Stephanie Roessler he provides expertise in collaborative projects related to genomic profiling of PSC-associated biliary tract cancers. We also have a strong collaboration in projects related to circulating biomarkers in PSC (Dr. Peter Puchas, Dr. Michael Dill and Prof. Peter Sauer).
Vivantes Humboldt Hospital, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Tobias J. Weismüller, at Department of Internal Medicine, is an important collaborator within the IPSCSG, particularly regarding the IPSCSG Study Group (IPSCSG) database project comprising more than 8000 PSC patients.
University Medical Center Hamburg
From 2023 till 2026 the administration of IPSCSG (International PSC study Group) are in the capable hands of Prof. Christoph Schramm and Prof. Ansgar Lohse at University Medical Center Hamburg, Germany.
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
We have a close collaboration with Prof. Cyriel Ponsioen and Prof. Ulrich Beuers at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Medicine, among other related to projects outgoing from the International PSC registry (IPSCR) initiative led by Prof. Ponsioen.
University of Cambridge, UK
Prof. Arthur Kaser, Head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, is still involved in one of the main translational work packages related to the functional characterization of the PSC risk gene; GPR35. This project was funded by the Regional Health South-East Health Authority in Norway through 2025 and involves Georg Schneditz and Dr. Nicole Kaneider-Kaser. Ongoing collaboration with Dr. Fotis Sampaziotis at Cambridge Biorepository for Translational Medicine at the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute has proved extremely valuable regarding organoids and regenerative medicine.
University of Rome, Italy
Prof. Eugenio Gaudio, Domenico Alvaro and co-workers are experts on biliary tree stem cells, and material from the NoPSC Biobank is being used to explore these cells from PSC patients.
Donostia University Hospital, San Sebastian, Spain
Prof. Jesus M. Banales is the Head of the Liver Diseases Group at the Biodonostia Research Institute and the coordinator of the European Network for the study of Cholangiocarcinoma. Prof. Banales together with co-worker Dr. Ainhoa Lapitz Dambolena and Dr. Pedro Miguel Rodrigues Vieira serves as important collaborators on projects related to PSC-associated biliary tract cancers.
Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain
In 2020 we established collaboration with the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) group. This center, led by Maria Reig, is world leader on hepatocellular carcinoma research. Key collaborating researcher is Dr. Marco Sanduzzi-Zamparelli.
University of Bern, Switzerland
The collaboration with Prof. Annalisa Berzigotti at the Department of BioMedical Research in Bern is ongoing and MD PhD student Sara Peisl has conducted her research in our labs at Rikshospitalet most of 2025.
University of Zürich, Switzerland
In 2025 we initiated a collaboration with Prof. Andreas Kremer, at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, regarding pruritus in PSC.
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
The experimental group collaborates with Prof. Michael Trauner and Dr. Claudia Fuchs-Steiner at the Medical University of Vienna on projects related to cholangiocyte functions, particularly on the use of cholangiocyte organoids. The clinical groups also collaborate with Prof. Trauner on studies related to norucholic acid.
European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma (ENSCCA)
NoPSC, represented by Trine Folseraas, participates in the European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma (ENSCCA), a collaborative research initiative that promotes cholangiocarcinoma interests across basic, translational and clinical research, as well as in the COST Action CA22125: Precision Medicine in Biliary Tract Cancer (Precision BTC Network).
Toronto General Hospital, Canada
Dr. Gideon Hirschfield, at Centre for Liver Disease, continues the collaboration with NoPSC. Biostatistician Bettina E. Hansen is leading the statistical analyses of clinical data collected in the International PSC Study Group (IPSCSG) database project, assisted by Dr. Aliya Gulamhusein at the same institution.
The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA
Collaboration with Dr. Konstantinos Lazaridis at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester is ongoing regarding our projects on multiple aspects of PSC, particularly with the use of omics technologies. We also collaborate with Dr. John Eaton and his research environment on imaging studies.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Prof. Richard Blumberg is an important collaborator on Dr. Espen Melum’s projects related to NKT cells. In addition, multiple projects in collaboration with Dr. Joshua Korzenik on PSC pathogenesis have been initiated in the context of the Resnek Family Center for PSC Research, a center, which is dedicated to discovering what causes PSC and developing and testing new therapies for this disease.
Japan
From 2024 we have intensified our collaboration with Japanese researcher Prof. Atsushi Tanaka at Teikyo University School of Medicine, Ass. Prof. Nobuhiro Nakamoto and Dr. Haruka Nakaharu at Keio University School of Medicine and Dr. Sachiko Kanei from University of Tokyo. Dr. Kanei is from October 2025 doing her research at NoPSC in Oslo. In addition, collaborations with Dr. Mashiro Shiokawa at Kyoto University on antibodies in PSC are ongoing.