Note that we have changed our name to UiO Growth House. Articles written before 2023 use the old name Life Science Growth House.
This spring, the new innovationthe University of Oslo (UiO) the Life Science Growth House announced its first calls for innovative researchers and students.
Wide-ranging project portfolio
The Life Science Growth House will contribute to idea stimulation among researchers and students in life sciences, health and technology at the two owner faculties – The Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences – but the services of the Growth House are available to the entire university, also in the axis with Oslo University Hospital and Akershus University Hospital.
In this application round, we received 36 applications from researchers and four applications from students, of which 23 and two applications were awarded grants, respectively.
In the twelve projects at the Faculty of Medicine that have been awarded seed funding, the researchers are to develop new methods, services or products to, among other things, obtain better and higher quality of DNA data; treatment of high blood pressure, eye disease, tuberculosis and brain cancer; intensive care; use of mini-organs to test drugs and disease models in general and neurological diseases in particular; methods to look at body composition with CT and detection of disease-causing organisms as well as study of the immune system.
In eight projects at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, researchers will look at early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer; a new drug for head and neck cancer; tools for use in brain research and research on pregnant women; measurement on skin; development of a smart sock for use in diabetes evaluation; radiation-tolerant semiconductor and catalyst for energy conversion.
A joint project between the two owner faculties is working on the cod's immune system, which can also give us knowledge on the human immune system.
In addition, researchers at the Faculty of Dentistry have received support to create a new version of the digital dental chart, and researchers at the Faculty of Educational Sciences have received support for tools to identify mechanisms to finance social innovation platforms.
One student project from each owner faculty has received support. The student project at the Faculty of Medicine works with immunotherapy for skin cancer, while the student project at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences is developing a rocket.
See full list of granted projects further down in this article.
Has reached researchers with early-phase ideas
'It is very gratifying that we can now support many innovative researchers at both our owner faculties so that they can continue to work on maturing their innovation ideas. We see that we have managed to reach out to projects in the early phase of the innovation process in line with the intention with the Growth House. We are now looking forward to working further with the projects which, in addition to the financial support they have received through this call, can receive counselling from our highly competent innovation advisers', says director of the Growth House, Hilde Nebb.
'When it comes to student projects, we have supported two very good projects, one at each owner faculty. And with students who have ambitions to launch a rocket far into the atmosphere, we can state that "the sky is the limit".'
More support opportunities
Researchers and students can contact the Life Science Growth House at any time to receive tailored counselling from our innovation advisers. As part of this they also assess whether the project can benefit financial support and a mentor.
Whether there will be more calls from the Growth House depends on the extent to which the researchers and students use the services on their own initiative.
The funded projects
|
Researcher projects with seed funding |
Applicant |
Responsible faculty and department at UiO |
Other project members* |
Granted in NOK |
|
A Solid Phase Reversible Immobilization (SPRI)-based DNA extraction method for improved sequencing data quality from low input and single-cell samples |
Madeleine Fosslie, OUS |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
John Arne Dahl, OUS; Adnan Hashim, OUS; Hilde Loge Nilsen, OUS/UiO |
48 000 |
|
Novel therapy for treatment-resistant hypertension |
Ana Calejo, OUS |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
Lise Román Moltzau, UiO); Finn Olav Levy, UiO; Alessandro Cataliotti, UiO; Aina Rengmark, Inven2 |
200 000 |
|
Smart sensor technology for the non-destructive quality control of retinal pigment epithelium cultures. |
Georgina Faura Mu?oz |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
Lars Eide, Goran Petrovski, Katja Benedikte Prest? Elgst?en, Xavier Mu?oz-Berbel |
50 000 |
|
Improved detection of adverse events in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) |
Per Steinar Halvorsen |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
Lars Prag Antonsen, Svein A. Landsverk, Andreas Espinoza, Itai Schalit, Didrik Lilja |
200 000 |
|
Self-healing bioadhesive for corneal perforation and corneal graft transplantation applications |
Goran Petrovski |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
Dr. Santosh Gupta, OUS/UiO |
50 000 |
|
Novel drugs for the treatment of Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis |
Noelia Alonso-Rodriguez, OUS |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
Anne Margarita Dyrhol Riise, OUS/UiO; Gareth Griffiths, UiO; Andrew Thompson, University of Auckland |
50 000 |
|
Detection of cod antibody |
Shuo-Wang Qiao |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine |
Professor Finn-Eirik Johansen, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Department of Biosciences |
50 000 |
|
Rapid prediction of pathogen phenotypes |
Gerry Tonkin-Hill |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Dr. Rebecca Gladstone, Dr. John Lees, professor Jukka Corander |
50,000 |
|
Repel glioblastoma invasion using optogenetic and chemogenetic tools |
Hua Hu |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Professor Iver Arne Langmoen, OUS |
50 000 |
|
Cryopreserved iPSC-derived zonated liver organoids with mature functionality for drug testing and disease modelling |
Aleksandra Aizenshtadt |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Stefan Krauss, Ingrid Wilhelmsen |
50 000 |
|
Automated quantification of body composition from CT scans |
Dena Helene Alavi |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Professor Rune Blomhoff; Peter M. Lauritzen, OUS; Tomas Sakinis, OUS |
50 000 |
|
A versatile microfluidic device for in vitro modeling of multiple human neurological diseases |
Joel Glover |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Alexandra Aizenstadt, Hege Fjerdingstad, Michal Mielnik |
50 000 |
|
How to make cytotoxic T cells harmless? |
Pawel Borowicz |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Anne Spurkland, Kaja Elisabeth B?rsum |
50 000 |
|
METTL13 as a potential early detection biomarker for pancreatic cancer |
M Carmen Herrera |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Department of Biosciences |
Professor P?l Falnes; PhD Mads Bengtsen; Agnes Bartels, masterstudent; Karl Kristian Kroken, master student |
50 000 |
|
CINPLA viral vector core |
Marianne Fyhn |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Biosciences |
PhD Guro Vatne; PhD Sverre Gr?dem |
200 000 |
|
EG103, a novel drug for Head and Neck cancer |
Anette Weyergang, OUS |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Pharmacy |
Kristian Berg, H?vard Sletta, ?se Bratland |
200 000 |
|
Development of NorPreg – an interface to support pregnancy studies by visualizing and analyzing Norwegian registry linked data |
Thi Hong Nhung Trinh |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Pharmacy |
Hedvig Nordeng, Angela Lupattelli, Marleen van Gelder, Luigi Maglanoc |
50 000 |
|
Smartsokk – utvikling av prototype |
Christian Tronstad, OUS |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Physics |
Elisabeth Qvigstad, OUS; Jonny Hisdal, OUS; Inge Petter Kleggetveit, OUS, Oliver Pabst, ?rjan G. Martinsen |
50 000 |
|
Memristive measurements on human skin |
Oliver Pabst |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Physics |
Christian Tronstad, OUS; ?rjan G. Martinsen |
50 000 |
|
Universal radiation-tolerant semiconductor |
Andrej Kuznetsov |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Physics / Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology (SMN) |
?ystein Prytz, Javier Garcia Fernandez, Alexander Azarov |
200 000 |
|
Well adhered and supported advanced catalysts for energy conversion applications |
Athanasios Chatzitakis |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry / Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology (SMN) |
Dr. Xiaolan Kang og M.Sc. Kevin Gregor Both |
84 500 |
|
New version of a digital dental chart |
Janicke Liaaen Jensen |
Faculty of Dentistry, Institute of Clinical Dentistry |
F?rsteamanuensis Lene Hystad Hove; PhD-kandidat H?vard Hynne; direkt?r Patrik Cetrelli og forskningsdirekt?r Astrid Jullumstr? Feuerherm, Kompetansesenteret tannhelse Midt (TK-Midt), Trondheim |
50 000 |
|
Sustaining Talkwall – Identifying mechanisms to finance social innovation platforms |
Ole Sm?rdal |
Faculty of Educational Sciences, Department of Education |
Ingvill Rasmussen, Richard Nesnass, Jan Dolonen, Anja Amundrud, Camille Dorival, Sharanya Manivasagam, Tom Seidel |
200 000 |
|
Student project |
Applicant |
Faculty and department |
|
|
|
Tankyrase Inhibition in Melanoma Immunotherapy |
Therese Bang |
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences |
Jo Waaler, OUS; Shoshy Alam Brinch, OUS; Stefan Krauss, UiO |
10 000 |
|
Production of a combustion chamber for a liquid bi-propellant rocket engine |
Ola Sten Baksaas |
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Department of Physics |
Rokas Naudziunas, Ingvild Garmo Nilsson, Ralv Holmsen, Elin Nystog Nordb?, Arne Fredrik Adamsr?d, H?kon Offernes, Ole J?rgen Norstrand, Even Tobias Eriksen, Jannik Eschler, Aline Rang?y Brunvoll, Aleksander Bourmistrov, William Dugan, Natalia Lidia Stepien, Oskar Idland, Fuad Dadvar, Semya T?nnessen, Hannah Sofie Roland, Peter Aarhaug |
10 000 |
* Main contact at UiO in italics when the applicant is employed at Oslo University Hospital (OUS)
About the Life Science Growth House
- innovation unit for life sciences, health and technology at the University of Oslo (UiO), that opened in February 2022
- run in collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and located in Oslo Science Park
- will contribute to a stronger innovation culture at UiO to put more knowledge from research to use
- helps researchers and students to mature early-stage ideas by providing tailored counselling, seed funding, meeting places, mentor programme, student internship and more
- is an open door for students at UiO; researchers at UiO, Oslo University Hospital and Akershus University Hospital; managers and administrative staff who support innovative researchers; and existing and new external partners
- collaborates closely with departments at UiO and university hospitals, and with the technology transfer office Inven2, business clusters, incubators and industry in the innovation ecosystem