Group description: 

Our main research focus is to identify and functionally characterize genetic factors that predispose to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. The genetic risk factors have to a large extent been connected to gene expression and gene regulation of immune cells. To get a deeper understanding of such aspects, we are studying different layers of genomic information; e.g. transcriptome, methylation and microRNA across a wide specter of immune cells both from blood and thymus. These regulatory profiles are investigated against autoimmune genetic risk loci (revealed through genome-wide association studies), and analysed against response to treatment.

Some of our projects:

1.     Characterization of the transcriptome of various immune cells in thymus and profiling of expression of tissue restricted autoantigens. 

2.     Exploring genetic, epigenetic and environmental risk factors, and their interactions, in rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease sharing many risk factors with type 1 diabetes.

3.     Epigenetic profiling of immune cells from rheumatoid arthritis patients and their correlation with treatment response.

4.     Quantification of the expression levels of HLA alleles, the main genetic determinant for autoimmune diseases, on different immune cells from thymus and blood.

Group members

Benedicte A. Lie, Professor

Marte K. Viken, postdoc

Mario Saare, postdoc (01.04.2019)

Fatemeh Kaveh, postdoc (until 01.02.2018)

Ingvild Gabrielsen, PhD student (until 18.03.2019)

Kari Guderud, PhD student

Line Sunde, PhD student

Fatima Heinicke, PhD student

Maria Dehli Vigeland, PhD student

Asgeir Lande, PhD student

Riad Hajdarevic, PhD student

Marte Heimli, PhD student (from 01.02.2019)

Sofie Andersen, Master student

Anne Rydland, Medical Laboratory Scientist

Siri Flåm, Medical Laboratory Scientist