Vessela N. Kristensen, Prof., PhD

Vessela N. Kristensen is a Director of Research and Head of Division of Research and Development at the Department of Medical Genetics, OUS and Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University in Oslo (UiO). Previously she worked at the Department of Clinical Molecular Biology and Lab science (EpiGen), Akershus university hospital, and Group Leader at the Department of Genetics, IKF, Det Norske Radiumhospital. She has been also Professor II at the Centre for Integrative Genetics, University of Life Sciences, Ås and assistant professor at the Advanced Technology Center led by professor Stephen Chanock at NCI, NIH, Bethesda. Kristensen has visited the Berzelius Laboratory at Karolinska to work on the functional characterization of polymorphic CYP2E1 together with the group of professor Magnus Ingelman Sundberg. She was also granted a fellowship to study the aromatase (CYP19) in the lab of dr. N. Harada at Fujita Health University, Nagoya, Japan. Kristensen’s research interests are related to how genetic variation affects occurrence of somatic alterations, gene expression patterns and genome wide copy number alterations in human breast and ovarian tumors. Understanding inherited genetic variability and how it affects crucial biological pathways is likely to lead to new successful prevention and treatment strategies. The tumor initiation, progression and clinical presentation are directly dependent on its genetic and biochemical environment – the entire body. This work has led to the communication of 265 scientific papers since 2002. She is a recipient of several national and international grants and awards, member of scientific and administrative boards in Norway and abroad and member of academic evaluating committees in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. Current topics of research are in the field of genomic variation in relation to susceptibility, clinical presentation, treatment response and adverse side effects of treatment, gene regulation and proximal phenotypes (RNA expression and metabolic profiles) in breast cancer.