Ragnhild Lothe awarded the Excellent Researcher Award 2021 at the Oslo University Hospital

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 awards are distributed anually 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. 

About this year's award winners:

Excellent Researcher Award

Ragnhild A. Lothe:

Committee statement:

Ragnhild A. Lothe is a microbiologist and cancer geneticist and the Head of the Department of Molecular Oncology at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital. She is also professor at the Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo. She has established and leads a multidisciplinary, translational research program focusing on colorectal cancer and other solid tumors, with a long track record of identifying molecular biomarkers of both positive and negative predictive value and guiding treatment options. She also performs cutting-edge research on molecular dissection of metastatic tumors as well as pharmacogenomic profiling in preclinical cancer models, including ex vivo drug sensitivity analyses that have formed the basis of a phase II clinical trial.

Lothe has an extensive national and international collaborative network and a strong publication record which is on an upward trajectory. The breadth of the research performed under her leadership is impressive, spanning from basic science, diagnostics, prognostics and all the way to treatment trials. The clinical impact is thus significant. Ragnhild A. Lothe is a clear leader in her field, and she has contributed substantially to strengthening of the research environment at Oslo University Hospital.

Ragnhild A. Lothe's publications
Home page of the Genetics group, headed by Ragnhild A. Lothe
Department of Molecular Oncology
Institute for Cancer Research

Early Career Awards:

Lasse Pihlstrøm

Committe statement:
Lasse Pihlstrøm got his PhD in 2015 at the University of Oslo. He holds a position as researcher and physician at the Department of Neurology, Oslo University Hospital. He has made important and novel contributions to the understanding of the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease that started already during his PhD studies. In this, he has established international collaborations with research groups in London and the US. He has been selected as the head of the Research Section at the Department of Neurology. Pihlstrøm is a very productive scientist with publications in high-ranked journals within the field. He has been awarded several grants as principal investigator during the last few years. Pihlstrøm is an excellent young researcher, already established on the international arena, with an ability to combine genetic analyses with clinical phenotyping.

Lasse Pihlstrøm's publications
Home page of the Huntington's disease and neurodegenerative genomics group, headed by Lasse Pihlstrøm
Department of Neurology

Marina Vietri

Committe statement:
Marina Vietri defended her PhD in 2015 at the University of Oslo, for which she was honored with the prestigious H.M. the King’s Gold Medal. She is now senior scientist at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology within the Institute for Cancer Research and holds a carrier fellowship from Helse Sør-Øst. She has done ground-breaking work on the molecular machinery known as ESCRT and nuclear membrane integrity in cancer that has achieved great interest in the scientific community and commentaries in e.g. Science, Nature and Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. These discoveries have been published in Nature and Nature Cell Biology, and she has twice received the excellent article award from Oslo University Hospital. Vietri is an excellent young scientist who has demonstrated strong skills to work with scientists from various disciplines including a promising collaboration with translational researchers at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Oslo University Hospital.

Marina Vietri's publications
Home page of the Cellular membrane dynamics research group, headed by Harald A. Stenmark
Department of Molecular Cell Biology

Video from the ceremony:

Link:

News article from oslo-universitetssykehus.no, where the award winners answer questions about their current research and how their findings may be of benefit for patients (text partly in Norwegian):

Priser til fremragende forskere 2021 (from www.oslo-universitetssykehus.no)

Previous award winners:
(click on year to read more)