I am a Ph.D student at the University of Oslo and a Medical Doctor specializing in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the Clinic for Emergencies and Critical Care, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet. My main supervisor is Andreas Barratt-Due, MD, PhD.

Project description:

The project centers on acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a severe and potentially lethal condition. Its primary aim is to identify and describe pathogenic and immune driven patterns that determine ARDS severity, irrespective of the underlying etiology. We hypothesize that ARDS severity and clinical outcome depends on a complex dysregulated immune response, rather than the primary cause itself.

Overactivation of the complement system plays a key pathophysiological role in disease severity across a subset of conditions and may also contribute, to an unknown extent, to the progression of more common disorders such as ARDS. Targeting the complement system thus offers an opportunity to mitigate dysregulated immune responses. A significant clinical challenge today is the inability to rapidly identify patients in whom complement overactivation likely plays a critical role in the disease process. We will assess a Point-of-care medical technological apparatus which could be used to quickly identify patients in whom complement overactivation plays a role in the disease process. This could give us the opportunity to offer new effective treatment options to more patients.