These are some of the topics that will be discussed at the innovation intro course for professors to be held in Trondheim at the end of this month. The School of Health Innovation is a collaborate initiative between UIO, NTNU and Karolinska Institute aiming to provide life science researchers and clinicians with tools and insight into how innovation can be put to work for the benefit of patients, the healthcare system and our society. The course was initiated in 2017 delivering courses to life science PhDs, post-docs and clinicians from Nordic universities. There is no course fee, and lunch/dinner is covered by the School of Health Innovation. Participants cover expenses for accommodation and travel. There are only 20 slots available for this course, so please sign up! If you are interested please register by 15 November, by sending your CV to Bjarte Reve, project manager for School of Health Innovation (HIS) bjarte.reve@medisin.uio.no

Program – School of Health innovation for professors(pdf)
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course the participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the opportunities of health innovation and entrepreneurship for utilization of research
• Increase innovation and productivity in your lab/research group
• Utilize incentives in order to increase innovation in your lab/department
• Apply scientific background and knowledge of health innovation to address challenges and develop services and products within a clinical setting and a biopharma/medtech setting
• Use various business tools for ideation and feasibility studies; to develop, prototype and test solutions to user needs
• Demonstrate an understanding of how the Tech Transfer Office and other innovation support actors can support the commercialization process
• Apply the basics in financing a startup company from private and governmental funding bodies
• Assess their skills in health innovation and reflect on the exploitation of their own research
• Combine being a scientist and a health innovator/entrepreneur

When & where
Dates: 28-29 November 2019.
Venue:Det Kongelige Norske Vitenskapers Selskap, Elvegata 17,Trondheim
Hotel for participants: Quality Hotel Augustin

This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for the discovery of how cells sense oxygen and adapt their metabolism to different oxygen levels. Their findings are of great clinical relevance and explain, among other things, how erythrocyte formation is regulated and the mechanism for the development of various cancers as also discussed in the K2-editorial in Week 42.

I think it is interesting that all the three award winners are clinicians and have approached the problem of oxygen sensing from different angles. The paediatrician Semenza and the nephrologist Ratcliffe studied erythropoietin regulation, while oncologist Kaelin’s approach was to understand a rare tumour syndrome characterized by stress hormone-producing tumours in the adrenal medulla (phaeochromocytoma), angioblastomas in the central nervous system, and multifocal renal cancer (von Hippel Lindau’s syndrome (VHL)). He found that the VHL protein forms a complex with hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1a) that leads to degradation of HIF1a. Lack of VHL generates a hypoxic signal eventually leading to angiogenesis and tumour formation.

What can we learn from them? Perhaps one message is that it is difficult to predict where the next major medical breakthrough will come from, and that too much ear marking of research resources in specific directions (read research programs) is less fruitful than letting scientists choose their own problems to study. As one research leader put it: “We don’t care what you do; we want you to be one of the leaders in your field”. Another tenet is the power of translational research in which studies of rare monogenic diseases can lead to breakthroughs in the understanding of basic physiological mechanisms that, in turn, open up to the development of new exciting therapies.

Let this year’s Nobel Prize be an inspiration for good translational research

Eystein

It is hard to keep track regarding the variety of teaching and teachers affiliated with K2 and participating in the range of University initiated subjects within the programs of dentistry, medicine, nutrition and pharmacy. Each program are using teachers across departments. With K2’s organizational structure the Research group leaders are those formally “in line” but their main focus are regarding the group/participants’ research. To fully be aware of each of their group members’ participation and competence regarding teaching may not be on top of the leadership agenda.

K2 therefore has initiated a process to bring forward the teaching responsibilities we hold at our department and propose the function called UGLE (OWL); Norwegian UndervisningsGruppeLEder (Group leader for teaching/education). The UGLE should hold a permanent academic position and within the specified subject allocated, surveil all the teachers at K2 within this subject, across research groups.

The working group has proposed a mandate and suggested who will be honored with the first 2-year round of being an UGLE. We have also named their vice-UGLE who should step up during UGLE-absence and as UGLE for the following period.

I would ask all of You teachers to look through the mandate; are the functions amended to the UGLEs appropriate?  Are there teaching areas/subjects that we are unaware of? Do You find which UGLE cover your teaching area(s)? The working group really need Your feedback to correct the mandate before we release the UGLEs.

Another matter: as mentioned in K2-nytt before summer break: K2 will prioritize bioinformatics. We thus embark on a survey regarding what You as academics consider needed to be provided of bioinformatics education. Anagha Joshi (the K2 affiliated bioinformatician) will submit at questionnaire to the academic staff. I hope most of you will provide answers: WHAT are Your needs? Hopefully then we may tailor the bioinformatics education to the different needs within K2.