Animal models are an essential tool in cancer research. In this project, we will use mouse models to understand how pancreatic cancer arises and why obesity is a risk factor for the disease.
We are studying mice with mutations that make them develop pancreatic cancer. Moreover, we culture the cancer cells in mice that are either normal or obese. It turns out that the cancer cells grow faster when the mice are overweight, and our goal is to find out why this happens.
We are particularly interested in investigating how the activity of various genes is regulated and whether the metabolism of the cancer cells changes when they are exposed to an obese environment. In the initial experiments, we are studying cell lines isolated from mice with pancreatic cancer. Eventually, we plan to culture cancerous tissue from pancreatic cancer patients in the same way.
Collaborators
Nils Halberg, University of Bergen
Emmet McCormack, University of Bergen
Caroline Verbeke (work package “Pathology”), University of Oslo/Oslo University
Ivar Gladhaug (work package “Metabolomics”), University of Oslo
Oddmund Nordgård (work package ”Circulating tumour DNA“), Stavanger University Hospital
Publications