Marit Inngjerdingen
Kari Bente Foss Haug
Alicia Llorente
President
E-mail: marit.inngjerdingen@medisin.uio.no
Professor Marit Inngjerdingen is heading the group “Innate lymphocytes and cancer” at Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo. Her research is focused on extracellular vesicles derived from Natural Killer cells, and how they may be tailored for cancer therapy. Her group has studied NK-cell derived EVs in detail, guided by proteomics profiling. She is also interested in blood EVs as biomarkers for cancer.
Vice President
E-mail: UXXHAX@ous-hf.no
Dr. Kari Bente Foss Haug is a senior researcher and head of the Blood Cell Research Group at Department of Medical Biochemistry, Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål. She has a background in molecular cell biology- and communication and has been working with implementation of new analysis methods at a broad level in the EV field. Her main research area in recent years has been characterization of EVs in health and disease, with focus on omics analysis of EV cargo from different body fluids in patients with inflammation and coagulation disorders. She was a member of the coordinating group of the Regional Research Network on Extracellular Vesicles (RRNEV) funded by Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst) 2013-2015, focusing on EV-based research in close collaboration with several basal and clinical research groups.
Board Member
E-mail: a.l.martinez@ous-research.no
Dr. Alicia Llorente is a Senior scientist leading the project “Extracellular vesicles and prostate cancer” at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, and a Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University. Her research focuses on the identification of prostate cancer biomarkers in urinary extracellular vesicles. In particular, she has used different omics approaches for the identification of proteins, lipids and miRNAs in urinary extracellular vesicles. Alicia has also been a coordinator of the Urine Task Force of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles. Finally, Alicia’s group is also investigating the molecular machinery of EV release.
Taral Lunavat
Mladen Veletić
Beate Vestad
Board Member
E-mail: Taral.Lunavat@uib.no
Taral is currently doing his mobility post-doctoral fellowship at Breakefield Lab in Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston and is also a researcher at Uni of Bergen, Norway. His research focuses on deciphering the role of exosomes in brain tumor microenvironment. His project at Harvard include boosting the effect of IL-12 with co-stimulant in in brain tumor microenvironment by targeting astrocytes using AAV therapy. He also focusses on EVs enriched with the costimulatory factor and understand whether it could enhance the survival for GBM tumor bearing mice. In addition, his work in Norway focusses on identifying genes enriched in exosomes that play role in tumor crosstalk in GBM. To understand this further, he specifically identifies proteins and mRNA in cells and EVs from GBM stem cells using transcriptomics and proteomics technologies that helps us understand the invasion potential of EVs in tumor microenvironment.
Board Member
E-mail: mladen.veletic@ntnu.no
Mladen Veletić is a Researcher at The Intervention Centre (IVS), Technology and Innovation Clinic, at Oslo University Hospital and the Department of Electronic Systems at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Specializing in Molecular Communications, he explores the in-body transfer of information using molecules – a multidisciplinary domain that synthesizes information and communication theory, computer networks, and computational and synthetic biology. His research focuses on computational methods that theoretically quantify and analyze the transport of extracellular vesicles, mainly within the heart and brain, for the sake of delivery of therapeutic agents. Dr. Veletić has contributed as a Research Topic Editor on 6G’s Molecular/Biological Layer and the Internet of Nano Things for Frontiers in Communications and Networks. He also served as a Guest Editor for the Special Issue on Molecular Communications for Diagnostics and Therapeutic Development of Infectious Diseases in the IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-Scale Communications. Currently, he holds positions in the Editorial Board of Elsevier’s Nano Communication Networks and as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Communications Letters.
Board Member
E-mail: beate.vestad@medisin.uio.no
Beate Vestad is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Institute of Internal Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet. From 2013 to 2016, she was employed as administrator of the South-Eastern Norway Regional Research Network on Extracellular Vesicles (RRNEV), where she was involved in implementation of methods for studies on EVs and investigated the role of EVs as potential biomarkers of disease. During recent years and PhD work, she has also been involved in research related to defining gut microbiota alterations in various inflammatory disorders and infectious diseases. Her current research focuses on both EV-related and non-EV related microbe-host crosstalk in the context of inflammatory disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).
Reidun Øvstebø
Honor Member
E-mail: reidunovst@gmail.com
Dr. Reidun Øvstebø has been Head of The Blood Cell Research Group, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, which studies mechanisms regulating coagulation and inflammation. The group has used human monocytes and lymphocytes, whole blood models, cell lines and patient samples as model systems together with upfront methodology as omics to disclose new biomarkers. The group also has high expertise on EVs and was the coordinating group of the Regional Research Network on Extracellular Vesicles (RRNEV) funded by Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Sør-Øst) 2013-2015, focusing on EV-based research in close collaboration with several basal and clinical research groups. Øvstebø is now retired from the Board, however, she will hold a lifelong Honor Membership in NOR-EV.