The 12th international Comet Assay Workshop in Pamplona, Spain (August 29-31).

NorGenoTech was present as a sponsor at the 12th international Comet Assay Workshop hosted by the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain in August 29-31, 2017. All the key scientists of the company were available for discussions.

New lab facilities – Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park.

On August 1 2017 NorGenoTech opens its laboratory facilities at Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park – a power centre for the development of new cancer treatments.

The vision of the Oslo Cancer Cluster Innovation Park is to create Europe’s leading environment for education, research and industry within oncology. By building this Innovation Park right next to the Norwegian Radium Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research at Oslo University Hospital, the whole value chain from basic research to industry within oncology in the Oslo-area is brought together at one place: The Radium Hospital Innovation Campus.

Successful CAAT Academy training session by NorGenoTech.

NorGenoTech’s scientist Dr Sergey Shaposhnikov has given a hands-on training session “Novel format of the comet assay for genotoxicity assessment in metabolically competent HepaRG cells” at the CAAT Academy hands-on training hosted by Biopredic International in Rennes on June 22-23, 2017.

Sergey’s training session was awarded the first place by Participants satisfaction survey as a session which interested the participants the most.

Comet assay training school in Oslo.

NorGenoTech’s researchers participated (as instructors, key speakers and organisers) in the comet assay training school arranged at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo.

The course covered the use of the comet assay to assess DNA damage (traditional protocol as well as high-throughput versions), and DNA repair (i.e. the so-called in vitro DNA repair comet assay).

NorGenoTech joined Aleap.

Aleap is the largest health community in Norway. Aleap’s mission is to facilitate innovation and value creation by developing an ecosystem for health startups that allow ambitious entrepreneurs and companies to create new products better and faster.

NorGenoTech became a member of Oslo Cancer Cluster.

Oslo Cancer Cluster is an oncology research and industry cluster dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients by accelerating the development of new cancer diagnostics and treatment.

The members of the cluster are all working in the cancer field and represent the entire oncology value chain, doing everything from exploratory research to selling therapeutics and diagnostics to global markets.

Coffee and oxidative stress: a human intervention study. Project with Kraft foods.

We have successfully completed the trial with Kraft foods (now known, in Europe, as Mondelez) aimed at studying possible antioxidant effects on healthy volunteers. In this carefully controlled clinical trial with healthy subjects, up to 5 cups of coffee per day had no detectable effect, either beneficial or harmful, on human health.

We have published the study in the European Journal of Nutrition:

Shaposhnikov, S., Hatzold, T., Yamani, N.E. et al. Eur J Nutr (2016). doi:10.1007/s00394-016-1336-4.

Convert-Si: Conversion of phytogenic silica-rich food industry by-products into value-added products.

As a part of the international consortium NorGenoTech AS won a prestigious ERA-IB / ERA-NET grant from the EC’s FP6 in Industrial Biotechnology: Conversion of phytogenic silica reach food industry by-products into value-added products (Convert-Si). The project period is October 1, 2016 – December 31, 2018. Our role in the project is to characterize the efficacy and safety of nanobiosilica – biologically active compounds derived from food industry by-products (cereal husks, cereal bran, brewer spent grain and distiller spent grain) and used as carrier of phytoextracts.

Project partners: National Research and Development Institute for Chemistry and Petrochemistry (Romania), University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicines (Romania), Laboratoarele Medica (Romania), Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland), MKF-Ergis Sp. z.o.o.z (Poland), NorGenoTech AS (Norway).

Collaboration with German coffee company Tchibo.

From March 2016 NorGenoTech collaborates with German coffee company Tchibo on investigating the effects of coffee consumption on human health. Tchibo is one of world’s largest coffee companies, also involved in academic research on coffee. We will give more details and announce the results of our collaboration soon.

Typisk Norsk: Research on colorectal cancer patients (2012 – 2027).

The primary objective of the project is to test whether a diet intervention based on the Norwegian dietary guidelines (published January 2011), and a diet rich in antioxidants, will reduce comorbidity and increase survival among colorectal patients after surgery. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancers in Norway, and the number of colorectal cancer survivors has greatly increased the last decade. We carry out DNA damage and repair analysis on patients’ white blood cells, which contributes to better understanding of molecular mechanisms of cancer development and of the long-term effects on patent’s health and survival.

The project is coordinated by the Department of Nutrition, Medical Faculty of the University of Oslo, see link.

NorGenoTech joined hCOMET – the EC COST Action CA15132.

The main aims of the hCOMET are to create a unified database of comet assay data relating to human health and disease that will be the base for pooled analysis on DNA damage and repair in humans in order to give definitive information on factors causing or preventing DNA damage that will help to reduce inter-laboratory variation and result in providing standard protocols for future studies, training schools, creation of cohort of skilled molecular epidemiologists for prospective human trial to test DNA damage and repair as predictive markers of disease and as a support to small and medium enterprises and companies that use comet assay, see link.

The Action is coordinated by NorGenoTech’s founder Professor Andrew Collins. NorGenoTech’s researchers Andrew Collins (AC), Gunnar Brunborg (GB) and Sergey Shaposhnikov (SS) are members of the following Working groups: WG2: Technical innovation and implementation (AC, GB, SS); WG3 Ring Studies (AC, GB); WG4 Guidelines and SOPs (GB, SS); WG5 DNA repair (AC); WG6 Different cell types (AC); WG7 Planning for the future (SS).

Research on manufactured nanomaterials – regulatory testing.

The rapid increase in production of nanomaterials demands special attention, as their behavior differ significantly from that of their conventional counterparts. Via our daughter company Comet BioTech AS we participate in 2 related projects aimed at developing national and European approaches to the regulatory testing of manufactured nanomaterials (MNM):

• EU project NANoREG (2014-2017): A common European approach to the regulatory testing of MNMs;
• NorNANoREG (2015-2017): National initiative towards developing a common approach to the regulatory testing of MNMs.

Our main role is developing and employing high throughput approaches to the analysis of DNA damage induced by nanomaterials.

Hands-on comet assay training course; August 2015, VITO, Belgium

NorGenoTech’s researchers Dr Gunnar Brunborg, Professor Andrew Collins and Dr Sergey Shaposhnikov were among the organisers and instructors of the comet assay hands-on training session arranged at VITO, Belgium. The training included the standard comet assay applied for genotoxicity testing on cells, the use of tissues in the alkaline comet assay, plant comet assay and the comet-based in vitro DNA repair assay (both with cell and tissue extracts).

NorGenoTech sponsored the 11th international Comet Assay Workshop (ICAW 2015, Antwerp University, Belgium).

NorGenoTech was involved in organising and sponsoring the 11th international Comet Assay Workshop (Antwerp University, Belgium). Professor Andrew Collins was a member of the organising committee and a lecturer, and Drs Gunnar Brunborg and Sergey Shaposhnikov participated as lecturers and panel discussion leaders. The programme included oral and poster presentations depicting the highlights of the past, the present and especially the future of the comet assay; discussing the latest advances in the development and applications, which included genotoxicity testing, human biomonitoring, DNA repair studies, environmental biomonitoring and clinical studies.

NorGenoTech coordinated ComPack project “A compact comet assay for versatile genotoxicity testing and environmental monitoring”.

ComPack (2014-2016) is a French-Norwegian collaborative research and innovation project addressing the industrial and academic need for reliable and validated testing of the effect of chemicals on human health and the environment.

Partners: NorGenotech AS (coordinator); University of Oslo; Laboratory of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Lille), Imstar SA (Paris), Biopredic (Rennes). The project was supported by French-Norwegian Foundation (Research Council of Norway project no. 13-03 FNS).

Building on the achievements and the varied expertise of the members of ComPack consortium, we developed and put in use fully functional high throughput comet prototypes and have shown their scientific advantages over conventional comet technologies. Novel equipment, services and training courses provided by both Norwegian and French partners are the outcomes of the project. We continue successful ComPack collaborations beyond the project. Our next goal is to transform our developments into a gold standard comet assay, which will also be applicable as a diagnostic tool in the areas of personalised medicine and anticancer treatment.