This summer I was offered a position as professor at the Centre for Pharmacy, University of Bergen. This was an excellent opportunity to ensure that my research can continue, and to build up my own “nano-lab” here in Bergen. However, I will not abandon cancer research, and decided to split myself into two halves, one cancer researcher, and one professor for as long as possible.

I am really excited to get this opportunity, and am sure that I can produce some nice research.

View from a professoral office on a rainy day.

It is time for an update on the activity. We are expanding, with more students, and also nice results. Edvin Tang Gundersen and Fredrik G. Johannesen are masterstudents from the nanotechnology program. Edvin now works on liposomal formulations for anti-AML therapy, and tries to make siRNA-carrying liposomes. Fredrik analyses brains from mice injected with tyrosin-hydroxylase-carrying nanoparticles. Sarah (pharmacy student) is busy completing the final experiments so she can spend the last months on writing her thesis. Also, Benedicte Sjo Tislevoll from prof. Gjertsen’s group is encapsulating potential anti-AML drugs to prevent severe effects on the central nervous system. On top of that, Drs. Gillian Barratt, Juliette Vergnaud, PhD student Felix Sauvage and myself are writing a review-article on nanoformulations for AML therapy, to be published in Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. Things are definetely getting interesting…

Edvin’s liposomes, seen through the transmission electron microscope.

December 16th we will have the Translational Hematology Cluster christmas symposium. TCH is a cluster of researchers dealing with various aspects of leukemia, ranging from basic understanding of the biological processes in leukemia cells, to developing and testing novel therapies. There are four principle investigators: Prof. Øystein Bruserud, Prof. Bjørn Tore Gjertsen, Prof. Emmet Mc Cormack and Prof Stein Ove Døskeland.

The topic of this symposium is metabolism and leukemia, and we have invited Prof. Karl Johan Tronstad to give a key lecture in this topic. The symposium is open to all that is interested. The full program can be seen here.

Félix Sauvage is now visiting our lab. He has, together with Gillian Barratt and Juliette Vergnaud, developed a liposomal formulation of a novel Hsp90 inhibitor. The inhibitor turned out to be insoluble in aqueous solutions, but Félix managed to include the molecule in liposomal membrane. He has already proven its efficacy on prostate cancer cells, but is now testing on our leukaemia cell lines. He will also try to encapsulate his drug in liposomes coated with folate to enhance drug loading into cancer cells. His first experiments showed promising results, and we are looking forward to the continuation.

The image shows Félix and Erasmus student Anu at Sotra, an island west of Bergen, during a rainy and windy Saturday.

Sarah and I are attending a workshop in nanomedicine . It is organised by SFnano, and held at the posh Tiara hotel in Porto. There were nice talks on pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and the factors determining how drugs behave in the body before they reach the site of action. A good introduction to an exciting, but complex field, which is important in all aspects of drug development.

There were also interesting talks about challenges in both topical, pulmonary, oral and parenteral drug administration, and several talks about electroporation, and its application in anti-cancer chemotherapy.

All in all three very interesting days, and we even got time for one-hour walk in old Porto.

Sarah Marie Vie Furevik has just started her master project in pharmacy in the field of nanomedicine. She will try to enhance nano-particle mediated drug delivery in tumours by manipulating the endothelium and interstitial pressure. Sarah has already started doing experiments, and it seems that she has a talent for science. We are really exited to have her in the project.

I just returned from Paris, where I visited Gillian Barratt, Juliette Vergnaud, and their group. Besides giving a talk on our work to find new therapies against acute myeloid leukaemia, we discussed further collaboration. We will host Félix Sauvage in October, and have planned a quite busy program for him. He will test liposome-encapsulated Hsp90 inhibitor on AML cells.

We will also send our PhD student Lene Myhren to Chatenay-Malabry to see if she can encapsulate a drug in nanoparticles, which will next be encapsulated in liposomes. Exciting! More information will follow later.

Faculté de Pharmacie, Chatenay Malabry, where Drs. Gillian Barratt and Juliette Vergnaud have their research labs.

Right now, I am in Oslo. Tomorrow I will visit the group of Prof. Gareth Griffiths to demonstrate production of oily-core nanocapsules. Also, we will discuss collaboration on his very elegant zebra-fish model for cancer. This unique model makes it possible to study nanoparticle and cancer cell distribution in the microscope. Since I develop nanocarriers against leukaemia, we hope to develop a zebra-fish model for leukaemia. Green leukaemia cells and red nanocarriers would be nice. Or vice versa.

We just got accepted a paper where we have developed a new liposomal formulation against acute myeloid leukaemia. The liposomes carry daunorubicin and emetine for enhanced cytotoxic effect, and are coated with polyetylene-glycol to avoid being recognised by macrophages. They have also folate on their outside, which binds to folate receptor on the leukaemia cells. We also managed to increase cellular drug loading by enhancing folate receptor expression. This was done by anti-folate therapy (methotrexate). The paper is published in European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics.