Research at Oslo University Hospital

Lasse Pihlstrøm from the Department of Neurology at OUH reveals new secrets in dementia diseases by studying which genes are turned on and off in the brain tissue of 500 dead Dutch people. Thanks to the brain bank in Amsterdam, which has stored brain samples for a number of dead patients, dementia researcher Lasse Pihlstrøm is in the process of revealing new molecular details of the two diseases Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.

Pihlstrøm' research is presented in an extensive feature article in Apollon - the award winning popular science magazine from the University of Oslo.

Project group leaders Anita Sveen and Bjarne Johannessen at Department of Molecular Oncology at the Institute for Cancer Research are 1^st and 2^nd authors of a major work presenting the ”expressed mutation dose” as a determinant of the functional consequences of mutations in colorectal cancer.

The article - entitled "The expressed mutational landscape of microsatellite stable colorectal cancers" is published in the journal Genome Medicine.

The multidisciplinary team of the K.G.Jebsen Colorectal Cancer Research Centre publishes a novel gene expression-based classification of metastatic colorectal cancer.
PhD student S. Hossein Moosavi in Anita Sveen’s project group at the Dept. of Molecular Oncology at the Institute for Cancer Research is 1st author of this paper published in Genome Medicine.
This is the first large study of multi-metastatic gene expression profiling of colorectal cancer liver metastases, and the new metastasis-oriented subtyping framework showed prognostic relevance in the context of tumor heterogeneity. 

Approximately 5,000 Norwegian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Perhaps the most significant clinical challenge today is deciding which type of treatment will work best for different patient groups. In the study "Single-cell ATAC and RNA sequencing reveal pre-existing and persistent cells associated with prostate cancer relapse" led by Dr Alfonso Urbanucci from Oslo University Hospital and Professor Matti Nykter from Tampere University, and published in Nature Communications, the researchers found that specific patterns in gene expression and DNA organization can predict patient response to treatment.

Three Oslo University Hospital scientists received prestigous awards for their outstanding research on August 27th. The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to Ragnhild A. Lothe. Lasse Pihlstrøm and Marina Vietri both received the "Early Career Award".
The prize money - 300.000 and 150.000 NOK respectively - is earmarked for research activities.

The ceremony was streamed and is available via YouTube.

The Adaptive Immunity and Homeostasis research group, headed by Jan Terje Andersen at the Department of Immunology, has developed a unique biomedical technology that can be used to create coagulation factors with a significantly longer duration of action than what is the case today. They have designed super albumin, which is a protein variant that can be coupled to protein-based drugs, and allow them to remain in the bloodstream for a considerable longer time.

The Research Council of Norway is announcing up to NOK 160 million in R&D support for Innovation Projects for the Public Sector. A funding of NOK 49 million is available for innovation in and for the public sector that contributes to good solutions to specific challenges in the health and welfare services. 

Funding scale: NOK 3 000 000-7 000 000

Application deadline: 15 September 2021

In order to stimulate excellent research and draw attention to the hospital's research activity, Oslo University Hospital rewards outstanding publications every half-year. 

Six research groups were awarded for their excellent papers published the second half-year of 2020 during a ceremony on June 11th.  Each group received NOK 50.000 for use in further research, and the prize winners gave  short presentations of their main findings. These are available via YouTube.

The Life Science Cluster has appointed OUS scientists Jan Terje Andersen and Per Morten Sandset as new board members.

The Life Science Cluster is a network for all companies and organizations for which the life sciences are key. This includes health and medicine where Norway’s advanced healthcare system forms a unique basis for the development of new technology.