CCBIO Seminar: Helge Wiig

Welcome to the CCBIO Seminar series!

Time: Thursday February 1st 2018, at 14.30.

Place: Auditorium 4, BB-building, Jonas Lies vei 91, Bergen.

Speaker: Helge Wiig, Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen.

Title: "Lessons from a black box –The extracellular microenvironment and lymphatics in malignant tissue"

Abstract:  In this seminar, my focus will be the tumor cell microenvironment, i.e. the interstitial fluid bathing the tumor cells, and the lymph draining from the tumor via the lymphatics. Tumor interstitial fluid is not readily available, but we have managed to isolate native interstitial fluid from solid tumors excised from experimental animals as well as humans to access the extracellular tumor subproteome This fluid has also been used as a substrate in tumor biology studies. One of our aims was to investigate whether identified tumor interstitial fluid specific proteins may eventually serve as molecular markers for early detection and disease prediction. Such proteins might also serve as targets in molecular imaging and cancer therapy, and give new insight in tumor biology at the microenvironmental level. I will also discuss experiments of relevance for lymphatic metastases, that are a major clinical problem in many cancer types. We have used two mouse models with limited capacity for lymphangiogenesis, the Chy and K14-VEGFR3-IgG lymphedema mice, to ask questions regarding the role of lymphatic vessels in tumor development and progression. This work suggests that the establishment of tumor-associated inflammation and immunity critically depends on lymphatic vessel remodeling and drainage. Moreover, these results have implications for immunotherapies, the efficacies of which are regulated by the tumor immune microenvironment.

Chairperson: Lars A. Akslen

The CCBIO Seminar series fulfills several aims.

• Firstly, it conveys relevant biomarker research to the local scientific community and students and younger researchers in particular, providing the ground for future recruitment.
• Secondly, it is part of two formal courses, BMED 380 on the master level, and together with the CCBIO Annual Symposium, forms CCBIO 902, a PhD level course.
• Last, but not least, the CCBIO seminars with their subsequent open pizza get-together are an important arena for informal interaction between international researchers, CCBIO PIs and other CCBIO staff as well as interested researchers and students in general.

Whereas the CCBIO seminars in CCBIO's beginning (the fall of 2013) mainly served the purpose of introducing CCBIO and its PIs research focus to the local research environment, more international guests have been invited in the following years. 

Read more about the CCBIO seminars here.

All interested researchers, students and others are welcome!