New group leader to strengthen molecular pathology at BRIC

From April 2021 professor Bjarne Winther Kristensen (MD, PhD) is affiliated with BRIC as group leader.  Bjarne Winther Kristensen is professor of Pathology with focus on brain cancer. His group is part of the Department of Pathology at Rigshospitalet and is located at the CPH Biocenter together with BRIC.

I am very happy that Bjarne has been affiliated with BRIC. Bjarne’s expertise significantly strengthens the translational research profile of the Centre, solidifies the link to the Department of Pathology, and provides exciting new technological and collaborative possibilities, says Anders Lund, Director of BRIC

New opportunities for translational cancer research projects

The overall aim of Bjarne Winther Kristensens group is to better understand the molecular pathology and microenvironment of brain tumours in order to come closer to precise diagnostics and personalized therapy. The expertise of the group covers immunohistochemical multiplexing, digital pathology and quantification of biomarkers, in vitro and in vivo brain cancer models and a series of techniques ranging from genome-wide methylation profiling, confocal time-lapse microscopy to deep spatial RNA profiling. Bjarne Winther Kristensens research group emphasizes the translational aspect in their research. Their experimental research is based on brain cancer tissue from patients and the establishment and use of well annotated patient cohorts plays an important role in their biomarker studies.

Combining the clinical expertise and translational approach with the expertise at BRIC opens up many opportunities for asking novel and original research questions and for planning excellent projects. Novel projects focussing on tumour microenvironment and targeting of glioblastomas are already being discussed or planned with several group leaders at BRIC/Finsen.

I deeply appreciate to be able to Join BRIC as a group leader and bring the Department of Pathology and BRIC closer together. BRIC has an excellent research environment and I´m happy to be part of this environment. I´m really looking forward to a series of exciting collaboratory research projects the next years, says Bjarne Winther Kristensen.

About Kristensen group

The overall aim of the Kristensen group is to better understand the molecular pathology and microenvironment of brain tumours in order to come closer to precise diagnostics and personalized therapy.

The aim of the group’s main projects is to identify, understand and overcome mechanisms of treatment resistance of glioblastomas driven by the microenvironment. Glioblastoma is the most frequent and malignant type of brain cancer and most patients have a poor survival. Novel therapeutic strategies that overcome the detrimental resistance mechanisms are urgently needed.

The microenvironment of glioblastomas is heterogenous, leading to potentially different mechanisms of resistance in e.g. the core and periphery of the tumors. Adding to the complexity, there is a high frequency of non-tumor cells in glioblastomas leading to potential critical cross-talk between tumor cells and microglial cells and macrophages. Having identified novel clinical relevant targets taking the interaction between tumor cells and the microenviroment into account, thisknowledge can be turned against the glioblastoma from a therapeutic point-of-view.

Visit the group website here https://www.bric.ku.dk/research-groups/Research/kristensen-group/
 

Follow Kristensen group on twitter: https://twitter.com/KristensenGroup