Collaborators
Key local collaborators
Research Institute for Internal Medicine (RIIM)
The head of the Institute was Espen Melum until August 2023, when Prof. Bente Halvorsen returned. The research groups led by Espen Melum and Johannes E.R. 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
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 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
Prof. Tor J. Eide, Dr. Henrik Reims and Dr. Krzysztof Grzyb are all involved in the histological and immunohistochemical 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
Department Head Prof. Asle Medhus (from late 2023 leader of the Division of Medicine at OUH) and IBD research group leader Prof. Marte Lie Høivik are important collaborators on IBD related projects.
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 of Infectious Diseases
Dr. Dag-Henrik Reikvam is another 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
A collaboration with Prof. Guro Lind and post.doc. Hege Marie Vedeld, Department of Molecular Oncology at Radiumhospitalet, is the basis for epigenetics-centered projects on early diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma in PSC.
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. Knut Brabrand, Gunter Kemmerich and 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.
Key national collaborators
Hybrid Technology Hub at University of Oslo
Resent work on organ on a chip includes a close collaboration with Prof. Hanne Scholz and Center director Prof. Stefan Krauss at the Center of Excellence Hybrid Technology Hub.
Akershus University Hospital
The NoPSC Clinical Liver Research Group, Ahus, Led by Dr. Kristin Kaasen Jørgensen is located here. Prof Jørgen Jahnsen’s group at Department of Gastroenterology and Dr. Anne Nergård and Dr. Aida Kapic Lunder at the Department of Radiology are important contributors and collaborators in MRI studies in the IBSEN cohorts.
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. Prof. Em. Rolf Berge, at the University of Bergen, has over many years provided fatty acid-related analyses in collaborative projects.
BEVITAL AS
Prof. Per Magne Ueland and co-workers at BEVITAL are important collaborators in project related to metabolomic biomarkers, including biomarkers of microbial function.
Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital, Bergen
The NoPSC Clinical Research Group in Bergen, led by Prof. Mette Vesterhus is located here. This encompasses also other strong collaborations at Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital.
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 where data from the Nordic Liver Transplant Registry are required.
Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
Prof. Annika Bergquist is a close collaborator on clinical projects in PSC and has also participated in the genetics studies. Prof. Niklas Björkström (former Guest Professor at NoPSC) is involved in projects relating to human immunology in PSC. They are both a part of the management group of the Strategic Prospective Scandinavian PSC Biobank.
Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Wallenberg Laboratory, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Prof. Fredrik Bäckhed and Prof. Hanns-Ulrich Marschall (passed away on August 1, 2023) have been collaborators related to the gut-liver axis for several years. Bäckhed is an expert on gut microbiota, metabolism and gnotobiotic animals and has been an advisor and collaborator on gut microbiota studies in mice, while hepatologist Hanns-Ulrich Marschall was a world leading bile acids expert.
Uppsala University, Sweden
Associate prof. Daniel Globisch is an increasingly import collaborator, providing unique expertise on the biochemistry of microbial metabolites, now comprising a shared postdoc working 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.
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.
Universitätsklinikum Dresden, Germany
There is a growing collaborative activity with Prof. Jochen Hampe.
University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany
Prof. Peter Schirmacher and dr. Stephanie Roessler, Institute of Pathology at the University Hospital Heidelberg, provides expertise to collaborational projects related to genomic profiling of PSC-associated biliary tract cancers.
Department of Internal Medicine, Vivantes Humboldt Hospital, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Tobias J. Weismüller is an important collaborator within the IPSCSG, particularly regarding the International PSC Study Group (IPSCSG) database project comprising more than 8000 PSC patients.
University Medical Center Hamburg, IPSCSG
In 2023 the administration of IPSCSG was transferred to the capable hands of Prof. Christoph Schramm and Prof. Ansgar Lohse at University Medical Center Hamburg, Germany.
Amsterdam medical Center, Netherlands, IPSCR
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. Cyriel Ponsioen.
University of Cambridge, Addenbrookes’s Hospital, UK
Prof. Arthur Kaser (former Guest Professor at NoPSC), Head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK, is still involved in one of the main translational work packages related to the functional characterization of one of the PSC risk genes; GPR35. This project is now funded by the Regional Health South-East Health Authority in Norway and involves postdoc Georg Schneditz and Dr. Nicole Kaneider-Kaser. Ongoing collaboration with Dr. Fotis Sampaziotis (Guest Professor at NoPSC) at Cambridge Biorepository for Translational Medicine at the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute has proved extremely valuable regarding organoids and regenerative medicine.
Sapienza, Università di Roma, Italy
Prof. Eugenio Gaudio, Domenico Alvaro, Vincenzo Cardinale and coworkers are experts on biliary tree stemcells, and material from the NoPSC Biobank are being used to explore these cells in PSC patients. In addition, we have a close collaboration with the COST-Action European Cholangiocarcinoma Network where Prof. Vincenzo Cardinale serves as COST-Action chair.
Biodonostia Research Institute, 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. Dr. Banales and post.doc. Ainhoa Lapitz serve as an 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, now lead by Maria Reig, is world leading on hepatocellular carcinoma research. Key collaborating researcher is Marco Sanduzzi-Zamparelli.26 Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, Toronto General Hospital, Canada
Dr. Gideon Hirschfield (former Birmingham, UK) continues the collaboration with NoPSC regarding characterization of the HLA related immune response in PSC from Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, Toronto General Hospital, Canada. 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 has been ongoing regarding our projects on the genetics of PSC. Via infrastructure at the Mayo Clinic, DNA from PSC patients in USA and Canada are collected and utilized in local projects as well as for verification of findings in genetic studies at NoPSC.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Prof. Richard Blumberg is an important collaborator in Dr. Espen Melum’s projects related to NKT cells. In addition, a collaboration with Dr. Joshua Korzenik on PSC pathogenesis has been initiated.
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania
In 2020 we were awarded a grant from the EEA Baltic research funds to the project “Gut-blood-liver axis: Circulating microbiome as non-invasive biomarker for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis”. This project is chaired from Lithuania, where Gediminas Kiudelis is PI, and the project partners include both Latvian (Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre) and Estonian (University of Tartu) institutions. The project was completed end of 2023 and involved both the Hov and Melum groups.