University of Oslo (UIO), Oslo, Norway

Description of organisationuio

Oslo University Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Scandinavia, with a work force of more than 20,000. It was established on the 1st of January in 2009, by the merger of three university hospitals in Oslo, and consists of eight medical divisions in addition to the central unit. The hospital is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Oslo and is a significant player within the education of a large variety of health care personnel. Biomedical research is one of the hospital's core activities and it has a central role in developing and supporting research within the South Eastern Regional Health Authority. More than 50% of all biomedical research in Norway is published by researchers affiliated with the hospital, covering basic, translational, and clinical research. The hospital also pursues international research collaborations. Research at the hospital is closely interlinked with research undertaken at the University of Oslo.

The Institute for Cancer Research is a part of the Division of Cancer Medicine, Surgery and Transplantation at Oslo University Hospital. It has, since its foundation in 1954, played a central role within cancer research both in Norway and internationally. The Institute has seven research Depts and more than 320 employees, master students included. About 70% of the employees and projects are externally funded. The Institute has internationally strong research groups within biochemistry, cell and tumour biology, genetics, radiation biology, immunology and cancer prevention. For more than 30 years, there has been a close interaction between researchers at the Institute and cancer surgeons, oncologists and pathologists. This emphasis on translational science has resulted in numerous clinical protocols based on in house research.

 

Previous experience

UIO and its staff members is currently leading an effort to utilise NGS sequencing data in clinical research on a national scale. In that setting, it is vital to adhere to national regulations for data privacy, working with governmental, regional and local authorities to implement solutions for privacy in accordance with these regulations.

 

Profile of staff members

Anne Lise Børresen Dale has a long track record and has pioneered various aspects of integrated genomics of breast cancer. Her research has centered on the molecular biology of breast and ovarian cancer with a emphasis on identification of genotypes and gene expression profiles contributing to elevated cancer risk, radiation sensitivity, tumour aggressiveness and therapy resistance.

Eivind Hovig pioneered high throughput knowledge mining for molecular biology (PMID: 11326270) and has developed systems approaches and applied these within particularly endogenous mutation mechanisms and DNA stability and melanoma relevant modelling, as well as with many high throughput assays

 

Website

www.uio.no

 

Five recent publications relevant to the project

PMIDs: 20592421, 20837533, 21908711, 21182759, 20886615

Kristensen VN, Vaske CJ, Ursini Siegel J, Van Loo P, Nordgard SH, Sachidanandam R, Sørlie T, Wärnberg F, Haakensen VD, Helland Å, Naume B, Perou CM, Haussler D, Troyanskaya OG, Børresen Dale AL. Integrated molecular profiles of invasive breast tumours and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) reveal differential vascular and interleukin signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Feb 21;109(8):2802 7.

Sandve GK, Gundersen S, Rydbeck H, Glad IK, Holden L, Holden M, Liestøl K, Clancy T, Ferkingstad E, Johansen M, Nygaard V, Tøstesen E, Frigessi A, Hovig E. The Genomic HyperBrowser: inferential genomics at the sequence level. Genome Biol. 2010;11(12):R121.

Nakken S, Rødland EA, Hovig E. Impact of DNA physical properties on local sequence bias of human mutation. Hum Mutat. 2010 Dec;31(12):1316 25.

Van Loo P, Nordgard SH, Lingjærde OC, Russnes HG, Rye IH, Sun W, Weigman VJ, Marynen P, Zetterberg A, Naume B, Perou CM, Børresen Dale AL, Kristensen VN. Allele specific copy number analysis of tumours. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Sep 28;107(39):16910 5.

Russnes HG, Vollan HK, Lingjaerde OC, Krasnitz A, Lundin P, Naume B, Sørlie T, Borgen E, Rye IH, Langerød A, Chin SF, Teschendorff AE, Stephens PJ, Månér S, Schlichting E, Baumbusch LO, Kåresen R, Stratton MP, Wigler M, Caldas C, Zetterberg A, Hicks J, Børresen Dale AL. Genomic architecture characterises tumour progression paths and fate in breast cancer patients. Sci Transl Med. 2010 Jun 30;2(38):38ra47.