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What are you working on?

I work as an associate professor at the Center for Diabetes Research, K2. My research is directed at how cell death features govern the type of regenerative strategy employed by a biological system. By coupling classical and newly generated murine models of cell loss with genetic cell tracing, timed conditional gene expression and omics assays (transcriptomics, proteomics, scRNAseq), I study the dynamic molecular fingerprint of pancreatic islet cells decay and regeneration, with focus on self-renewal and global regulators of cell identity maintenance processes. Besides the in vivo approach, I use patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) as disease models coupled with large-scale imaging and omics for studying islet cell fate acquisition and maintenance. We are also developing a 3D culture system to investigate the influence of mechanical forces and adhesion on signaling pathways controlling the pancreatic progenitors’ differentiation potential. Our goal is to enlarge the knowledge base about pancreatic islet biology in order to create a better treatment for diabetes, or preventive measures in the future. My personal goal is to induce at least a certain level of endogenous regeneration of the pancreatic islets as seen in highly regenerative animals (like hydra, salamander or fish). My career started by working on such a successful regenerative system, and during my PhD work at University of Geneva, we described that apoptotic cells resulted upon injury were the source of regenerative signals. During my postdoctoral work (University of Geneva), I started working on pancreatic islet regeneration and showed that the mammalian pancreas also exhibits, at a very low level, an endogenous regenerative capacity. A better understanding of how islet cells are formed during development will also improve future regenerative strategies.

What do you enjoy working with at K2?

I started working here five years ago, which gave me the opportunity to get to know the tools and needs of clinical research. I am part of a very heterogeneous multidisciplinary group of researchers, integrating genomics, molecular and cellular biology, bioinformatics and clinical research. We all study diabetes but different aspects of the disease from the molecular mechanisms to clinical aspects. I like the challenge of learning how to effectively communicate with scientists from different disciplines, and to see the diabetes research from so many other points of view. Being so close to the clinics at K2 also changed my perspective over my own research, especially regarding motivation and impact.

I have been employed as a technician at UiB since December 1999, last century! I was employed in the research laboratory at the children’s clinic, with Lage Aksnes as my first boss. Among other things, there was analysis of vitamin A,D,E, celiac disease, ulcerative colitis, morbus crohn and Pancreas Elastase 1 in the faeces. And, some method development as well.
Before coming here, I worked in the laboratory at the Vinmonopolet. I took my education at the Statens Næringsmiddeltekniske skole, where I became a Næringsmiddelteknolog. So, I am neither a chemist nor a molecular biologist, but the lab work is much the same, although the quantities are different. At the Vinmonopolet it went in liters, here it goes in microliters.
I am currently employed at the Center for Diabetes Research. I have been here since 2014, when the research lab at the children’s clinic was closed. I have been given new, interesting assignments and had to learn new methods. A bit demanding at times, but very nice to learn new things. I also want to brag about my great colleagues, a joy to work with.
I am also a safety delegate, since 2010, and substitute representative for chief Safety delegate at MED-FAK since 2017. By saying yes to that position, I have become acquainted with new colleagues at all faculties, both at UiB and the rest of the country’s universities. Every fall, the Hovedverneombudskonferansen is organized, which all HVO and their substitute representative can attend. The conference goes on a tour of the universities.
As you may realize, I am doing well here at K2, varied work assignments and great colleagues! Have a nice weekend!

I completed my education at NTNU in Trondheim in molecular cell biology. I moved to Bergen after my studies and was lucky to get a job in Pål Njølstad’s MODY group in 2016. Today, the organization has changed a bit, but I still belong to the MODY group and am affiliated with the Center for Diabetes Research. MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young) is still an important part of the work.
The group consists of both UIB and hospital employees. The close association with Haukeland University Hospital makes the work extra interesting and meaningful. I feel very lucky to get to work here with incredibly talented and very nice colleagues, which makes it very nice to be at work.

What do you work with?

I am a trained biologist and work as a postdoc at the KG Jebsen Centre for autoimmune disorders and in the group Endocrine Medicine. Through the PhD period here at K2 and a three-year postdoctoral period at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, I have developed a fascination for how our immune cells affect our health. I worked on cell signalling in monocytes during the PhD period, and continued to characterise macrophages and their role in adipose tissue at Karolinska. The field of immunology is currently undergoing major advances due to technological advances, such as CyTOF and single-cell sequencing, that allow the study of large amounts of single-cell data. I have been fortunate to build expertise in these techniques, both in the lab and with data analysis, and I look forward to contributing with this at the K.G. Jebsen centre. We are researching disorders where the immune system attacks endocrine organs so that the hormone balance is perturbed. Certain gene variants are associated with the risk of developing such diseases, but just how the complex interaction between the immune system and these organs goes wrong early in the process is unknown. By combining «single-cell» techniques with clinical material and animal models, we aim to shed light on this.

Why do you want to work at K2.

The K.G. Jebsen centre for autoimmune disorders consists of a fine mix of clinicians and researchers who have a solid track record in immunology and endocrinology. The research ranges from GWAS to more functional studies, and it is a plus that there is a focus on «single-cell» at the centre. When I look back on the PhD period at the institute, it is especially the good working environment that I remember. With previous knowledge of this environment at K2, the choice to come back for me was very easy.

What do I work with?
My education is molecular biology, and I completed my PhD degree in 2005. After that, I have had many different roles and projects in research group G1 (Endocrine Medicine). I like it best “in the lab” but, unfortunately, I do not have so much time anymore for that. I still try to do lab tasks myself, especially when introducing and optimizing new methods, and I try to perform some lab task each week. I spend most of my time to supervise master’s, PhD students, and postdocs, and to coordinate and discuss upcoming and ongoing projects and results with my internal colleagues and external partners. Of course, applications, articles, reports, etc. must also be written. A lot of time is spent on zoom meetings, both inside and outside corona time.
My research “in a large perspective” focuses on finding causal mechanisms for endocrine autoimmunity, and to translate this knowledge to improved therapy for patients with these diseases. In more detail, I lead two projects. The aim of the first project is to identify monogenic autoimmune diseases by genome sequencing of families with accumulation of endocrine autoimmunity, and the aims of the second is to “single cell” analyse regulatory T cells in patients with autoimmune diseases to investigate how we can use such cells as targets or tools for therapy. In both projects, collaboration between different professions is required; physicians to recruit patients, molecular biologists to perform laboratory experiments, and bioinformatics and geneticists to help get results out of the “big data” research. After that, collaboration with the biologists again is required to get “meaning out of the results”. These are demanding, but exciting, processes! I learn new things every day!
Techniques we carry out in our lab are standard molecular biology and immunology such as cell culture, PCR, real-time PCR, ELISA, various other immunoassays etc. We collaborate with the core facilities at UiB for flow cytometry, Cytof and RNA sequencing, and with external partners for e.g. genome sequencing and genome wide association (GWAS) experiments.

Why do I like working at K2?
I often think that I am super-lucky who get to work with something that is exciting, and that challenges me every day. K2 is an institution that, both physically and professionally, is close to Haukeland University Hospital. Genes and the immune system have fascinated me since I “knew that they existed”, and being allowed to dig into this because we are so closely linked to the medical department, and that we have access to methodology that are needed, is very awarding. We have many different competences in the research group, and collaboration internally is important both socially and professionally. The doctors in the group often work clinically at the same time. This means that we can find new problems and hypotheses together with them, which we can try to solve in the laboratory, and the path is then short to turn to the patients again with new knowledge. From bed-to bench-and back again. The fact that we have a registry and biobank, that we can utilize as material for research, is a fantastic resource.
K2 and the lab block have very nice laboratory facilities, and the way is short to my internal partners in other research groups (special medical genetics) and the core facilities. The core facilities are truly something we should strive for so that we avoid researchers sitting in each corner with his/her private/own machine and who spend time learning the same advanced techniques.
Working at K2 also gives me the opportunity to supervise students at various levels, something I like very well. It challenges me, and makes me find things I do not know, that I have to learn. That leads to personal and scientific development.
So that is why I like to work here!

What you’re working on?
I am a specialist in medical biochemistry and work in a position as chief physician at the Hormone Laboratory at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Pharmacology and as assistant associate professor at K2. This is a good combination, as there are still interesting issues in the senior doctor’s job that I can develop in the field of the investigation. In recent years, my focus has been on heart markers especially. how we can use these for fast, but at the same time safe, diagnostics of acute coronary syndrome. Together with good colleagues, I am responsible for conducting two major clinical trials that investigate this, these are funded by Helse-Bergen, the Cooperation Body in Helse-Vest and trond mohn foundation. I also work with the prognostic value of heart markers. In addition, I am working to determine the biological variation of biomarkers in various national and international collaborative projects.
An example of the synergy effect in the combined position is that the mystified of the work in the laboratory is designed to ensure good quality. The issues often have to be suppressed in the event of larger or smaller attempts and we try to put things up so systematically that we can publish the results afterwards. We can and collect anonymised laboratory data from Haukeland University Hospital, right, to investigate the effect of analysis quality on patient care.
In addition to researching student education for medical biochemistry and is a legal tenant for phire PhD student and a research line student.

What do you like to work with at k2?
I really like working at K2 because through research I get a lot of ability to develop myself professionally. I feel like I’m learning enough new and having something to reach for, it gives me energy. The investigation also allows me to meet colleagues at various stages of my career, from students to professors, and at many different institutions. Working together across is very instructive. The work at K2 also allows me to access courses in education and straight renting, which is also developed beyond the purely academic. Through teaching, I meet talented and curious students, and it is nice to be able to help them gain knowledge of laboratory analyzer and laboratory life. It is very good to work with straight hire and so colleagues grow and develop academic self-accommodations.
It is nice to work at K2, I experience my colleagues both in knowledge and administrative positions as knowledgeable, helpable and dedicated, which makes it always nice to go to work.

I work as an associate professor at the Influenza Center, K2. In addition to teaching medicine and master students, we research colleagues and patients admitted to the hospital. We research the immune system and on immunological responses after both vaccination and infection with influenza viruses. We work with many different influenza viruses and have participated in various clinical trials with influenza vaccines on adults, children and health workers. The goal is to be able to contribute to knowledge in immunology in order to create better vaccines in the future. The long-term goal is a universal flu vaccine, a “one shot fix all.” But it’s probably even far ahead. My career at the influenza center started 10 years ago, during the swine flu pandemic in 2009. Then we collected samples from hospitalized patients in the infection ward to try to understand why some people get so much sicker than others. Now we’re researching the coronavirus, and that’s the second pandemic I’m allowed to be a part of. We are studying immunological responses in both staff and patients to see if we develop immunity to the new virus. Researching a viral pandemic is very exciting, demanding and unpredictable. Everything has to happen fast and it requires a lot of teamwork. Here at the Influenza Center we have a fantastic team. We have a widespread international cooperation, and it has provided many exciting discussions and new perspectives. Combining the position at K2 with clinical work as a doctor at the hospital is the perfect combination for me, and I love it.

I have been working as a technician in The Leukemia research group, now headed by professor Håkon Reikvam, for 9 years. My tasks are varied, and I like the opportunity to be able to change between the still-sitting computer-work and the more active lab-work. Most of my time I spend biobanking, working with RNA/DNA, cell cultures, analysis by flow cytometry, teaching/aiding PhD-candidates and researchers, and general maintenance of lab and instruments. Just now I am working on a project looking into integrins in acute myeloid leukemia. During this home-office period, I have transformed our dining table into an efficient workstation to analyse the flowcytometry results from this project.

The reason I have stayed on in my first position after finishing my master thesis for so many years, is the combination of interesting and varied workdays, and all my fantastic colleagues here at K2. There is always a possibility to learn something new and exciting. I always look forward to work, and not everyone can count themselves as lucky!

I’m a PhD candidate at the Hormone Laboratory Research group and I started in the group as a master student in molecular biology in 2015. After I finished my master degree I was hired as a technician and I was working on the project that turned out to be my PhD-project. In the project we receive blood and adipose tissue biopsies from morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery. We characterize immune cells, with focus on macrophages and NK cells, in these samples to determine how the tissue inflammation is connected to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. We want to determine which subgroups of immune cells are important in adipose tissue inflammation and to get a better understanding of why some morbidly obese individuals develop insulin resistance whereas others do not.

The working environment on K2 is very good, with a lot of nice and welcoming colleagues. I wanted to do my master project at K2 because of the connection to Haukeland hospital and the possibilities to do exciting medical research. The research environment at K2 is interdisciplinary, where molecular biologists, doctors, surgeons, bioengineers and others work together and contribute with different knowledge into the research projects.

Very nice to be in this week’s K2-nytt, thank you Tonje!

I graduated in gene technology from the University of Tartu, Estonia in 2011.

In 2012 I started working as a technician at the Bergen gynecologic cancer research group headed by Professor Helga Salvesen and am now senior technician in the same group with Professor Camilla Krakstad.

I am responsible for the daily running of the research laboratory at The Women’s Clinic as well as the Bergen Gyn. Cancer Biobank, which currently stores samples from over five thousand patients.

I work with different molecular biological methods and have contributed to many research projects, both at a national and international level. My administrative tasks include ordering, training of new colleagues and HSE.

As one of the safety representatives at K2 I am very pleased that there is a common platform within the department where we can discuss problems and challenges to make the working day better for everyone.

The group I work in has always been very much engaged in research into gynecological cancer. It is a great pleasure to work with people who have such a great motivation and enthusiasm. Our goal to find effective treatments for our cancer patients and is driving factor of my work.

It is always busy at The Women’s Clinic, with many exciting challenges and I appreciate the unique and continued cooperation between K2 and the different Helse-Bergen departments.

Take care of each other, especially in these Corona times and remember to appreciate your fellow co-workers!

Thank you!

Kadri

What are you working on?

I have been a PhD student in the Respiratory research group at K2 since September 2019. Before that I was a MSRP (Forskerlinje) student and had the opportunity to do research while studying medicine. In my work I am examining the risk of lung cancer in patients suffering from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). I have been using data from GenKOLS, which was collected here in Bergen in 2003-2005. I have linked these data to cancer data from the Cancer Registry of Norway. In addition, I help collecting data for a multicentre study, BOLD (Burden of Global Lung Disease)

Why K2? What do you enjoy working with at K2?

I like being able to work with existing data, while contributing to collect more. It is not very social to work on the computer all the time, so I enjoy meeting both study participants and co-workers. I have also had the chance to teach a little, which is fun. The Respiratory research group often attends pleasant and educational congresses in Norway and abroad.