K.G. Jebsen Center for Epimutations in Cancer

At the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Epimutations in Cancer, researchers will investigate this challenge in a new way. The Centre is built on groundbreaking discoveries showing that epigenetic alterations, known as epimutations, occurring early in embryonic development may be an underlying cause of a significant proportion of cancer cases. Researchers behind the Centre have demonstrated that embryonic epimutations in the BRCA1 gene are present in 5-10% of healthy women and contribute to the development of a substantial share of breast and ovarian cancer cases.

The origins of such embryonic epimutations remain largely unexplored. One important reason is that the methods used so far have not been sensitive enough to detect these changes. At the Centre, researchers will employ specially developed sequencing-based analyses to identify and study epimutations with far greater precision. Through a comprehensive research programme, they will investigate how widespread epimutations in tumour suppressor genes are, what causes them, and how they contribute to cancer development.

The results may provide new insights into how many forms of cancer arise and thereby change our understanding of the origins of the disease. The findings may also have major implications for cancer prevention and lay the foundation for new treatment strategies for cancers driven by epigenetic mechanisms.

The K.G. Jebsen Centre for Epimutations in Cancer is based at the Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, and the Department of Oncology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Haukeland University Hospital.

Centre Director:
Stian Knappskog

Deputy Directors:
Camilla Krakstad
Halfdan Sørbye