Knutsen, Erik

Erik Knutsen

Stillingsbeskrivelse

I’m a molecular biologist with a Master’s degree in Molecular biotechnology and a PhD in Medical biology. My main research area is within breast cancer, where we perform molecular experiments in cell lines and patient material and perform large scale computer analysis.

The main aim with our research is to understand why the cancer cells spread to other parts of the body, and to try to find new ways of preventing this.

I’m also the Study program leader for the Bachelor program in biomedicine.

Research key words: Breast cancer, single cell sequencing, bioinformatics, CRISPR/Cas, Serglycin, non-coding RNAs, transcriptome analysis, RNA-Sequencing, metastasis, lymph node, tumor microenvironment.

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Forskningsinteresser

I’m currently leading a single cell RNA-sequencing project with the aim of subclassifying breast cancer cell present in the lymph nodes for better personalized diagnosis and treatment.

The project will assess the transcriptional changes in breast cancer cells as they are subjected to the microenvironment of the lymph nodes, and will examine the impact of this new microenvironment on epithelial mesenchymal transition, cancer stem cells, and risk of metastasis, recurrence, and dormancy. The project combines the use of fresh patient samples, bioinformatics, and in vivo and in vitro models.

I have an ambition to better diagnosis for breast cancer patients to prevent overtreatment with serious side effects, to generate new basic knowledge on metastasis, and to find new targets for prevention of metastasis. I further want to tackle the problem of tumor dormancy, as this is one of the great challenges when it comes to relapse and metastasis.

I believe solving the problems of metastasis and tumor dormancy can only be reached by a strong collaboration between clinicians/ oncologists, bioinformaticians, and molecular biologists, and I have therefore established such collaborations locally, nationally, and internationally.

Undervisning

I’m the Study program leader for the Bachelor program in biomedicine, and I teach in cellular biology at the bachelor, master, and PhD level. My main area of expertise is genetics, cancer biology, non-coding RNAs, and -omics analysis.

I’m currently main supervisor for two Ph.D. students and one master student, as well as co-supervisor for one Ph.D. student. Previously, I have been main supervisor for one Master’s student, two Erasmus+ trainee students, and two Bachelor's or undergraduate student and co-supervisor for three Master’s students and one Bachelor's or undergraduate student.

ResearchGate

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4903-0150

Forskning og undervisning