Current role and affiliations
Stein-Erik Gullaksen is a postdoctoral fellow in the Medical Department at Helse Bergen HF, where he is affiliated with the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Myeloid Blood Cancer (C-MYC) and the Centre of Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO).
He holds a PhD from the University of Bergen (2018) and an M.S. and B.S. in Nanotechnology from the same institution. His doctoral work focused on high-dimensional single-cell analysis of blood samples from patients in clinical trials using mass cytometry.
Research interests and focus
Gullaksen is interested in precision medicine approaches for optimizing treatment in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a myeloproliferative stem cell disorder effectively treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). He employs mass cytometry to profile single cells from longitudinal peripheral blood samples of CML patients enrolled in international clinical trials.
His research focuses on early prediction of treatment response using machine learning and characterization of TKI-specific signaling signatures. The goal is to enable, in the future, treatment optimization within days rather than months to secure optimal patient response while limiting toxicity.
Selected publications
- Pretraining and the lasso
Craig E, Pilanci M, Le Menestrel T, Narasimhan B, Rivas MA, Gullaksen SE et al. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology. 2025. - CML stem cells and their interactions and adaptations to tyrosine kinase inhibitors
Gullaksen SE, Omsland M, Brevik M, Letzner J, Haugstvedt S, Gjertsen BT. Leukemia & Lymphoma, 2025 1–10. - Switching from imatinib to nilotinib plus pegylated interferon-α2b in chronic phase CML failing to achieve deep molecular response: clinical and immunological effects
Geelen IGP, Gullaksen SE, Ilander MM, Olssen-Strömberg U, Mustjoki S, Richter J, Blijlevens NMA, Smit WM, Gjertsen BT, Gedde-Dahl T, Markevärn B, Koppes MMA, Westerweel PE, Hjorth-Hansen H, Janssen JJWM. Ann Hematol. 2023 Jun;102(6):1395-1408. - Early response evaluation by single cell signaling profiling in acute myeloid leukemia
Tislevoll BS, Hellesøy M, Fagerholt OHE, Gullaksen SE, Srivastava A, Birkeland E, Kleftogiannis D, Ayuda-Durán P, Piechaczyk L, Tadele DS, Skavland J, Baliakas P, Hovland R, Andresen V, Seternes OM, Tvedt THA, Aghaeepour N, Gavasso S, Porkka K, Jonassen I, Fløisand Y, Enserink J, Blaser N, Gjertsen BT. Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 7;14(1):115. Erratum in: Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 30;14(1):1767. - Single cell immune profiling by mass cytometry of newly diagnosed chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia treated with nilotinib.
Gullaksen SE, Skavland J, Gavasso S, Tosevski V, Warzocha K, Dumrese C, Ferrant A, Gedde-Dahl T, Hellmann A, Janssen J, Labar B, Lang A, Majeed W, Mihaylov G, Stentoft J, Stenke L, Thaler J, Thielen N, Verhoef G, Voglova J, Ossenkoppele G, Hochhaus A, Hjorth-Hansen H, Mustjoki S, Sopper S, Giles F, Porkka K, Wolf D, Gjertsen BT. Haematologica. 2017 Aug;102(8):1361-1367.