Helse Sør-Øst RHF announces a call for applications with total funding of approx. 135 million NOKs for health research in the region. The call has both a thematic open structure, available to all research areas in the specialist healthcare services, and a targeted part where funding is decided after strategic assessment of applications within prioritised thematic areas. In addition, applications submitted from non-university hospitals will be considered for strategically earmarked research awards.
The application deadline is Thursday 4th September 2025 at 16:00

Research Director Andreas Kleppe, at the Institute for Cancer Genetics and Informatics (ICGI), has been awarded funding from the Norwegian Research Council's FRIPRO scheme for the ENDPATH – End-to-End Pathology project. This initiative sets out to develop a new imaging system for digital pathology, using it to train artificial intelligence (AI) models that could improve predictions of cancer progression. The project, initially focusing on prostate cancer, aims to enhance both the accuracy and reliability of diagnostic tools.

In the 25 June issue of Nature, Harald Stenmark at Institute for Cancer Research and colleagues in Berkeley, Baltimore and Warsaw publish a review article on “The expanding repertoire of ESCRT functions in cell biology and disease”.

The review discusses the functions of ESCRT proteins in diverse cellular functions and highlights the associations between ESCRT dysfunctions in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. 

Eirik Malinen at the Department of Radiation Biology received this year’s Michael Goitein Biology Award at the Annual Conference of the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group (PTCOG) for the work “Enhancing immunotherapy with proton- vs x-irradiation in mouse tumor models”.  
The work is a collaborative effort between Malinen and the group of Nina Jeppesen Edin at the Physics Department, UiO, and Brita Sørensen at the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy in Aarhus. The proton experiments were performed in Aarhus, paving the way for follow-up activities at our new preclinical proton facility in Oslo.

RNA modifications are tiny chemical marks added to RNA molecules to control how they work. One of the most common is m6A modification, which acts like a “sticky note” on RNA—telling the cell when to use it, store it, or discard it. In this study, the Klungland group used their latest cutting-edge, ultra-sensitive technique called picoMeRIP-seq, which can detect m6A even from just 10 cells. This allowed them to draw the first complete map of m6A across human eggs and early embryos—from immature eggs (GV) to mature eggs (MII), zygotes, and all the way to blastocysts.
The findings were published in the EMBO journal on June 4th, with Yanjiao Li as first author.

Three Oslo University Hospital scientists received prestigous awards for their outstanding research on June 6th 2025.
The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to Per Kristian Eide.
Ibrahim Akkouh and Mehrdad Rakaee both received the "Early Career Award".
The prize money - 400.000 and 200.000 NOK respectively - is earmarked for research activities.

The awards are distributed annually in order to honour excellent scientific work. The awarding process is organized by the hospital's research committee, while an external Scientific Advisory Board has evaluated the candidates. 

In order to stimulate excellent research and draw attention to the hospital's research activity, Oslo University Hospital rewards outstanding publications twice a year. Six research groups were awarded for their excellent papers published the second half-year of 2024 during a ceremony on May 27th. Each group received NOK 50.000 earmarked for further research, and the prize winners gave short presentations of their main findings.

In collaboration with both national and Nordic colleagues the OUH based research group ERGO arranged the third NSEM meeting in Oslo, bringing together over 100 in-person and over 200 digital participants from 20 countries. The overarching theme was “Time To Control - from basics to the Clinic in Status Epilepticus" with focus on Early Treatment and addressed one of the most urgent and life-threatening neurological emergencies.
The meeting featured high-quality presentations and cutting-edge discussions, with critical contributions from leading national and international experts. It was both intellectually stimulating and deeply motivating to witness the collaborative spirit focused on advancing care for status epilepticus patients.

On May 15th, 2025, the European Commission approved the project “Validated non-invasive liquid biopsy tests for cancer PREDIction in LYNCH Syndrome, PREDI-LYNCH". The project officially starts on May 1st and is funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe Mission on Cancer with 13.6 million Euro (project number 101213916). PREDI-LYNCH will run for six years (2025-2031), and the consortium consists of 28 partners from 16 European countries. The initiative is led by researcher Mev Dominguez Valentin at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital (OUH). In addition, the University of Oslo (UiO) and Oslo Cancer Cluster (OCC) are partners in this ambitious research and innovation project.

Webmaster www.ous-research.no:

Trond Olav Berg