I work 50% as a transplant and general surgery resident at Rikshospitalet and 50% as a PhD student on a project in liver transplantation.

Project description:

The goal of my PhD project is to evaluate and optimize marginal donor livers through the investigation of inflammatory and metabolic responses.

To increase the donor pool, there is ongoing research on the use of marginal livers, i.e. steatotic livers and livers from elderly donors. However, steatotic livers are particularly susceptible to ischemia-reperfusion injury, and transplantation of these livers increases the risk of postoperative liver dysfunction. Reliable viability assessment of the donor liver is therefore also essential.

In my project we will examine innate immune system activation and tissue inflammation during ex situ liver machine perfusion, focusing on the role of complement system and the cytokine network. A more comprehensive understanding of the molecular and pathophysiological basis of ischemia-reperfusion injury in steatotic livers can hopefully identify therapeutic targets that can help us expand the donor pool, as well as improve our current methods of viability assessment.