Can you tell us something about your daily tasks and work in general?

I have been appointed here as a professor of pharmacology for almost five years. Prior to that, I was a member of the group of Stein Ove Døskeland, where I also earned a Doctorate in Cell Biology. My work is twofold, teaching and researching. I have responsibility of teaching pharmacology for pharmacists. It is a challenging field, consisting of several disciplines, such as physiology, pathophysiology, cell biology, biochemistry, drug chemistry, to mention some. Luckily, I have skilled co-workers who help me pull the load. Our goal is to constantly prepare for teaching, so that pharmacists have a good basis for practical use of pharmacology when going to work.

Research takes time, and is a way of life and a hobby (pleasure-staking activity that you do in your spare time) as much as work. During the time here I have built up the research activity around the development of new therapies for cancer, focusing on new molecules, and nanomedicine. We have also looked up systems where we use zebrafish larvae to find both the toxicity and effectiveness of new molecule sandand. With me in the research I have a small group of PhD students, master-student  and researchers , who take care of most of the practical work. It’s a good time when it’s needed, but most of the time is enough in the office.
I’m so lucky to be part of several collaborative project working on drug development. It is very inspiring to meet skilled researchers in other disciplines, who can fill in my knowledge hole.

What do you like working at K2?

I applied to K2 because I saw that it was a varied research environment, and expertise that allowed me to develop as a researcher. Although it is in many ways similar to the Department of Biomedicine, where I came from, the close-up of the clinic is a huge advantage at K2. I’ve had the opportunity to work with clinicians, who make sure that my research abruptly come much more closer to the patient. There are also a lot of people at K2, and a lot of people who helped me get started right after I started here. Without that help, it would be much harder for me to get started with my research. I would also add that teaching is actually quite nice, so long as they get enough time to prepare. All in all, K2 is a nice place to work.

With background as a Microbiologist, I started my doctoral work as a University fellow in 1990 together with Professor Lars R. Haaheim. I participated in building what has now become the Influenza centre. After defending my doctoral degree, I worked one year as temporary associate professor. I then received a three year post-doc. from the Rsearch Council of Norway, and worked with professor Karl-Henning Kalland on his HIV rev project. After this period, in 1998, I was offered a job at Broegelmann Research Laboratory with Professor Roland Jonsson as head, and I have been there since then. Firstly I was employed as researcher, then as senior researcher and in 2007 a permanent position as senior engineer. In my career at the UiB, I have published more than 100 peer review papers, I have also supervised over 30 students and been actively involved in all levels of teaching in microbiology and immunology. I have led several clinical studies. I am partner in several large projects funded by NFR and EU, and my main research interest is immunological processes in autoimmune rheumatic diseases, after infection and vaccination. I have a special interest in teaching, and particular in the next generation of scientists. I am responsible for several immunology courses and I am also the head of the research school «Bergen Research School for Inflammation».

Can you tell us a little about your work? What are your specific tasks?

I am employed in a 100% position as professor of medical virology at the Department of Clinical Science. In addition, I am a senior consultant in the microbiology department, Haukeland University Hospital. In this latter position, I have for many years been involved in the introduction and use of nucleic acid diagnostics (e.g., PCR) for the rapid and accurate detection of viral infections in patients. Clinical and laboratory work is very useful in virology teaching for medical students.
At K2, I am the group leader for the Prostate Cancer Therapy Research Group. This group has a solid molecular biological background and has researched basic regulatory and signaling mechanisms in cancer cells and virus-infected cells. Over the past few years, innovation has become a bigger role. Panels of chemical substances have been screened for effect on cancer cells, and we have discovered new chemical substances and published what for protein the drug interacts with in the cell and the mechanisms of action. Patenting is underway in collaboration with VIS and with further development in collaboration with research groups in Shanghai and the company Xennials Therapeutics in Chicago. One exciting project is cryoimmunotherapy, abbreviated CryoIT. This is a form of immunotherapy that uses the patient’s own dendritic immune cells. After parts of the cancerous tissue are killed by a freezing process with special equipment inside the patient, the immune cells are injected into the freeze-killed cancerous tissue. These dendritic cells are capable of responding to what is different in cancer cells and can then instruct the entire immune system to attack the cancer cells, including cancer cells that have spread in metastases around the body. A Phase I clinical trial has just been conducted with CryoIT for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The results are very useful for the next generation CryoIT with start-up in 2021.
The research group has received support from the Research Council’s program NFR TREATMENT and from the Cancer Society for robust production of more potent therapeutic dendritic cells for the next generation of CryoIT. The cells will be produced in the new therapeutic cell laboratory in the Helse Bergen building on the Laboratory building floor 1M. In this work, we focus on a synergy between the pharmacological screening project and CryoIT.

What do you enjoy working on at K2?

It is research that is the major challenge and the biggest commitment, otherwise I would probably have gone in clinical direction with patient work at the hospital. The collaboration with the others in the group and colleagues and clinical teams is inspiring. It is also rewarding to be able to teach and disseminate to the students and to experience the many young talents that are going on with their education and goals. I feel that there is a good environment in the Laboratory building, but that the potential for research and innovation is still greater than what has manifested itself until now. We have a compact medical campus with a very well equipped laboratory. It is sad that so many colleagues lack project funding. In particular, the experimental research is underfunded as operating expenses are relatively high. I am extremely grateful for the great support that my research group has received from private heathens in Bergen. This support has been essential to ensure that our projects are progressing well, that new people are being hired, and that we are looking forward to exciting years where new cancer treatment is a key goal.

What do I work with:
I am working as a CCBIO postdoctoral fellow in the research group headed by Prof. Bjørn Tore Gjertsen where I started autumn 2019. The research focus of the group is cellular signaling in Hematological malignancies. In my project I will focus on investigating cell-to-cell communication and signaling in the bone marrow compartment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) before and during treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The main methods used are imaging mass cytometry (IMC) and 2-photon microscopy of living small research animals. Since I began my Post Doc period I have mainly spent time planning the project in detail and familiarized myself with new methods in addition to writing applications for ethical approval to REK and FOTS for animal research. I have also been part of the process in getting a multi-photon microscope for the animal facility at the institute in collaboration with Prof. Emmet McCormack. It is great to be employed as a Post Doc, as this employment represent the transitioning from PhD towards an academic career with more responsibilities. It’s a position where you still have the time and responsibility to execute experiments and research. In addition, you gain increased supervising responsibilities and learn more about the administrative duties following the job as a researcher.

What do you enjoy working at K2?
I just moved back to Norway in June 2019 after a 2-year position as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. I chose to return to K2 and the research group I was affiliated to during my MSc and PhD degrees because I wanted to continue performing research in Hematology and I also knew that the working environment was great and the people working in the research group and the institute are kind and collaborative people. The close collaboration between Haukeland University Hospital and K2 is a great asset and allows exciting translational cancer research.

Can you tell us something about your daily tasks and work in general?

I head the influenza center whose vision is to reduce the global burden of influenza illness through being an international leader in development of new and improved influenza vaccines. The center has 14 enthusiastic scientists and students who work on development and evaluation of current and novel influenza vaccines with a focus on understanding the immune response after infection and vaccination. Influenza is a pernicious virus causing annual outbreaks and occasional pandemics and our ultimate research goal is to develop a universal influenza vaccine which provides broad and durable protection.

What do you enjoy working at K2?

K2 is the ideal work place with laboratory in close proximity to our collaborators at Haukeland Hospital allowing synergy between the clinic and laboratory in our clinical trials. The diversity of scientific interests at K2 are stimulating and provide an exciting work place.

Can you tell us something about your daily tasks and work in general?

I work as a senior consultant at Økonomi, but am so lucky that I have been given the position of Advisor/Economy Coordinator at K2 and start with it in a week (17.02.). I will probably continue to work with financial guidance and follow-up for some research groups as I do today, in addition to the new tasks I will get. Of course, I do not have details about the new job yet, but some key tasks will be the general management of the finance section at K2, responsibility for budgeting and reporting, and in addition to externally funded financial management, I will work with management support and advice on financial issues to the department management.

What do you enjoy working at K2?
I really enjoy K2, I’ve done that from day one. First and foremost, this has with all the handsome people who work here, both the ones you meet sporadically at the coffee machine, the ones you work with for the day and the people you work with from other disciplines. In addition, the tasks are a nice mix of routine work and challenges and I find it very nice to work with finances, management and at the same time learn new disciplines to know. Has always had a goal that you should learn something new every day (large or small) and you get that to the very highest extent at K2. I can’t wait to go to work every single day!