Inven2 award: Regulation of cell division project led by Beate Grallert wins innovation campaign
For the second year in a row, Inven2, in collaboration with Oslo University Hospital (OUS), has conducted an innovation campaign to highlight research-based ideas with commercial potential from OUS. In this year's competition, Beata Grallert from the Department of Radiation Biology at the Institute of Cancer Research came out on top. Her project, which investigates the regulation of cell division, impressed the jury with the groundbreaking new regulatory mechanism she discovered. This opens up completely new possibilities for the treatment of cancer.
Insights into cell division under stress
Grallert's research focuses on one of the most fundamental processes in cell biology, namely how cells divide.
Recently, her project group discovered that a known stress signaling protein, GCN2, plays an important role in this process. In healthy cells, GCN2 is not required for cell division, but under stress – as cancer cells often experience – the protein becomes absolutely essential for successful division.
Grallert and her team are investigating how GCN2 contributes to cancer development, and how this knowledge can be used to develop new therapeutic strategies.
“We want to uncover how cancer cells use a unique mechanism to be able to divide under cellular stress. By understanding cell division in healthy cells versus in stressed cancer cells (and they are always under stress), we can also identify new possibilities for treatment,” says this year's winner Beata Grallert.
Strengthening the power of innovation at OUS
The innovation campaign at OUS is being carried out for the second year in a row and aims to identify promising research-based ideas with commercial and societal potential. Grallert's project was considered a good example of how basic research can pave the way for future healthcare innovations.
– Grallert's project is an excellent example of how groundbreaking basic research can lay the foundation for innovation that can potentially revolutionize the treatment of cancer patients. Although there is still a lot of work to be done before final conclusions can be drawn, this is a very promising starting point. I look forward to following the development further, says Jens Halvard Grønlien, head of the innovation department
The winner receives a prize of 50,000 kroner that will go towards further developing the project. Inven2 congratulates Beata Grallert on her victory and looks forward to further cooperation.
Translated from original news article at the Inven2 homepage
From left: Peter Skorpil (Inven2), Eirik Løvbakken (Innovation Department OUS), Lilian Lindbergsengen (OUS), Aina Rengmark (Inven2), Beata Grallert (OUS), Melanie Langiu (OUS) and Alma Mei Hagen (OUS).
Photo: Inven2
Links:
Original news article from the Inven2 homepage (in Norwegian):
Regulering av celledeling vinner innovasjonskampanje ved OUS (inven2.com)
The Regulation of translation in cell cycle and stress project group, led by Beata Grallert