iCAN Science Seminar on Development of functional precision medicine for patient with CLL with Dr Skånland

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in Europe and it remains incurable. It is a heterogeneous disease and treatment responses vary between patients. Biomarkers that can guide treatment decisions are therefore needed. Current treatment guidelines for CLL are based on genetic biomarkers that are useful to guide treatment with chemoimmunotherapy, but these biomarkers have failed to predict responses to newer targeted treatments. Alternative biomarkers that can guide targeted therapy are therefore needed to provide safe and effective treatment to all patients.

In her talk, Dr Skånland will present how her group identifies functional biomarkers, based on cell signaling and drug sensitivity signatures in CLL cells, that can predict responses to targeted therapies. Their long-term aim is to implement such biomarkers in clinical treatment decisions. Biomarker-guided treatment could improve the quality of life and prolong the survival of the patients since ineffective and potentially harmful therapies may be avoided.

When: Thu 23.10.2025 at 15:00–16:00
Where: Biomedicum 1, seminar room 3, and online. Link for online participants on Zoom.
Host: Research Director Caroline Heckman

Bio:
Sigrid S. Skånland received her PhD from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Oslo in 2009, under the supervision of Prof. Kirsten Sandvig. She was then awarded with a long-term EMBO fellowship to do her post-doctoral training in the Molecular Signaling Group of Prof. Ivan Dikic (2009-2011) at the University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany. From 2011, Skånland has been affiliated with the group of Prof. Kjetil Taskén where she has established her own project group focusing on functional precision medicine in hematologic cancers. By performing functional analyses including ex vivo drug sensitivity screens and single cell signaling analyses on patient cells, her aim is to identify biomarker signatures that can predict treatment outcomes for the individual patient. Skånland has coordinated the European Commission ERA PerMed consortium CLL-CLUE (6 partners in Europe) on tailoring the targeted treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and is now coordinator of the follow-up EP PerMed consortium CLL-OUTCOME (7 partners). In 2023, she was awarded “Researcher of the year” at the Institute for Cancer Research.

Welcome!

For more information on iCAN Science Seminar series, please contact ican-comms@helsinki.fi