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Head, Institute of Cancer Research , Oslo University Hospital & Group Leader Institute of Cancer Research, Department of Cancer Immunology
Director Oslo University Hospital Center for Precision Cancer Medicine
“Advancing precision cancer medicine by building national initiatives and via international collaboration”
10:50 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Brown Foundation Institute for Molecular Medicine
1825 Pressler, Houston, Texas 77030
Beth Robertson Auditorium
Register for the Event
Professor Kjetil Taskén, key player in building Norway’s national cancer precision medicine initiative, now coordinates the Cancer Mission PRIME-ROSE project for Drug Rediscovery Protocol-like (DRUP) clinical trials across Europe.
He has authored greater than 300 publications and is an inventor of more than 20 patents. He won the King Olav V’s Prize for Cancer Research in 2016, the University of Oslo Innovation Prize in 2023, the Oslo University Hospital Excellent Researcher Award in 2024, and is Vice-President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Current research is in tumor immune evasion mechanisms and functional precision medicine for different solid and blood cancers.
Major Achievements in the cancer research
Molecular mechanisms for tumor immune escape mediated through prostaglandin E2 and adenosine acting via a cAMP-PKA-Csk pathway to suppress effector T cells (taken to trials with COX2i and aspirin).
Mechanisms of activation of human regulatory T cells and their suppression of effector T cells. Discovered effects of several known drug classes as Treg inhibitors as well as developing new inhibitors.
Introduced functional precision medicine with methods for cancer drug sensitivity screening and high throughput signaling analyses for CLL, myeloma, and via PDXs and PDOs for several solid cancers.
Selected publications:
- Bains, S.J., Mahic, M., Myklebust, T.Å., Småstuen, M.C., Yaqub, S., Dørum, L.M., Bjørnbeth, B.A., Møller, B., Brudvik, K.W., Taskén, (2016) Aspirin as Secondary Prevention in Patients with Colorectal Cancer – An Unselected Population-Based Study. J. Clin Oncol., 34:2501-8.
- Skånland, S.S., Cremaschi, A., Bendiksen, Hermansen, J.U., Govinda Raj, D.B.T., Munthe, L.A., Tjønnfjord, G.E., Taskén, (2020) An in vitro assay for biomarker discovery and dose prediction applied to ibrutinib plus venetoclax treatment of CLL. Leukemia, 34(2):478-487.
- Lone, A.M., Giansanti, P., Jørgensen, M.J., Gjerga, E., Dugourd, A., Scholten, A., Saez-Rodriguez, J., Heck, A.J.R., Taskén, K. (2021) Systems approach reveals individual and joint signaling networks of the four Prostaglandin E2 receptors in T cells. Science Signal., 14:eabc8579, pp1-25.
- Giliberto, M., Govinda Raj, D. B. T., Cremaschi, A., Skånland, S.S., Gade, A.,Tjønnfjord, G.E., Schjesvold. F., Munthe L.A., Taskén, (2022) Ex vivo drug sensitivity screening in multiple myeloma identifies drug combinations that act synergistically. Mol. Oncol. 16:1241-1258.
- Taskén, §, Russnes, H.G., Aas, E., Bjørge, L., Blix, E.S., CONNECT Public-Private Partnership Consortium, Enerly, E., Fagereng, G.L., Flobak, Å., Gilje, B., Gjertsen, B.T., Guren, T.K., Heix, J., Hovig, E., Hovland, R., InPreD-Norway and National Molecular Tumor Board Consortium, IMPRESS-Norway Consortium, Lønning, P.E., Meza-Zepeda, L.A., Mæhle, P.M., Nilsen, H.L., Thoresen, S.Ø., Widerberg, K., Smeland, S., Helland, Å. (2022) A national precision cancer medicine implementation initiative for Norway. Nature Med., 28:885-887. §Corresponding author
- Wei, Q., Foyn, H., Landskron, J., Wang, S., Rye, I.H., Skånland, S., Russnes, H.E.G., Klaveness, J., Ahmad, , Taskén, K. (2025) Identification of a group of 9-amino-acridines that selectively down-regulate regulatory T cell functions through FoxP3. iScience, 28: 111931, online, pp 1-26.
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