Educating a new generation of cancer researchers
At the Centre for Cancer Biomarkers, future cancer researchers meet internationally renowned researchers as part of the education.
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In 2014, the Centre for Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO) established the CCBIO Research School for Cancer Studies.
“We are committed to bringing our international network of researchers into the research school and the teaching of our students and PhD candidates. It is extremely valuable for students to hear researchers discuss their work, and even more the opportunity to get into a dialogue with seasoned researchers,” says Professor Lars A. Akslen at the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Bergen (UiB).
He has been CCBIO’s director since the centre’s inception in 2013.
Autumn 2015: three new courses
The CCBIO Research School for Cancer Studies is Norway's first cancer research school and offers education within a broad range of cancer research.
“A systematic education of cancer researchers is crucial. Therefore CCBIO offers three new PhD courses in autumn 2015, in addition to the already established courses,” says Akslen.
One of the new autumn 2015 courses is CCBIO905. This is a basic course which covers the fundamental methods for the study of biomarkers in cancer. A biomarker is a characteristic or a substance that can be measured, and which may be an indicator of biological conditions and mechanisms.
Internationally recognised researchers
Among the lecturers on the course in biomarkers are Postdoctoral Fellow Even Birkeland at CCBIO and Professor Arne Östman from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.
Birkeland main research focus is in proteomics, which is the large-scale study of proteins and particularly their structures and functions. He is also involved in research on the differences between different forms of breast cancer.
Arne Östman is internationally recognised for his molecular cancer research. Since February 2015, he also works in a 20 per cent position at CCBIO as a researcher and teacher of the next generation of cancer researchers.
Understanding cancer
The two other new courses CCBIO offers this autumn are CCBIO904, Biomarkers and Tumour Biology in Clinical Practice and CCBIO902, the CCBIO seminar and symposium course.
CCBIO 904 covers tumour biological factors that are important for the understanding of why cancer develops, and what mechanisms are important for tumour growth, metastasis and morbidity in patients.
CCBIO902 is based on the monthly research seminars and the annual CCBIO Symposium at Solstrand Hotel, outside of Bergen. At the symposium renowned international and national scientists meet to discuss their work related to cancer biology or cancer biomarkers.
FACTS/Centre for Cancer Biomarkers
- This is one of four Norwegian Centres of Excellence (SFF) at the University of Bergen (UiB).
- This is the second national cancer research SFF, along with the Centre for Cancer Biomedicine at the University of Oslo.
- The centre is working to identify mechanisms that control the interaction between cancer cells and their micro-environment, identify diagnostic characteristics of this interaction, and conduct clinical trials with tailor-made treatment.
- The centre consists of researchers from a number of cancer research groups at UiB.
- For more information, visit the CCBIO home page.
