About the group

The main research topics of PELIKANTRA (Pediatric Liver Kidney Alimentary Nutrition and Transplantation) are clinical and translation research related to kidney disease, liver disease and transplantation.

The group has research activity both at department of Pediatric Research and at clinical departments at the Division of Paediatric and Adolescent medicine.

Projects and studies

Our group is engaged in several projects and studies.

Projects

Complications and long-term follow-up after organ transplantation in children

The project includes several subprojects on patients transplanted with kidney or liver: 

  • Metabolic risk factors and inflammation after kidney transplantation in children
  • Motor skills and cognitive function after transplantation
  • Transition: Adherence and graft loss in young people with kidney transplants

Induced pluripotent stem cells and development of organoids

The project has several subprojects developing models for the investigation of fat metabolism, cholestasis development (PNALD) and living organoids.

Other studies

  • Cholestatic diseases, including studies on cholestasis disease with genetic investigations and cell models.
  • ABO incompatible living donor kidney transplantations in pediatric patients: a collaborative study from the Nordic Pediatric Renal Transplantation Study Group (NPRTSG)
  • "Genetic factors in children with congenital malformations in the kidneys and urinary tract" - multicenter study from Hannover

National and international multicenter studies

  • Autoimmune hepatitis in the Nordic region (Collaboration Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia)
  • Biliary atresia in the Nordic countries (Collaboration between Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland)
  • Genetic cholestasis disease (Collaboration Norway, Czech Republic)
  • EVITA study - Epstein-Barr Virus Infection monitoring in kidney transplant recipients - Early identification of increased risk of infection and cancer for individualized immunosuppression. Cooperation with Odense and Aarhus, DK. Prospective multicenter study.

Cooperation

We cooperate with several partners and institutions, both nationally and internationally.

National

  • OUS: Newborn Screening, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Radiology, Department of Gastromedicine, Dept. of Medical Biochemistry, Dept. of Medical Genetics, Dept. of Transplantation Medicine, Norwegian Nephrology Register, Benedicte Stavik, Per Morten Sandset, Espen Melum, Johannes Hov
  • Haukeland: Norwegian Kidney Biopsy Register, Department for Children and Young People

International

  • ESPN/ERA-EDTA Registry
  • The Nordic Liver Transplant Registry
  • Nordic AILD (Nordic autoimmune liver disease); Marianne Hørby (Copenhagen), Bjørn Fischler (Stockholm), Laura Merras-Salmio (Helsinki), Audur Gudjonsdottir (Gothenburg)
  • Nordic Pediatric Surgery Study Consortium
  • NPRSTG (Nordic Pediatric Renal Study Transplant Group)
  • Professor Jaroslav Mokry, Charles University, Czech Republic

Recent defences

  • Svanhildur Haflidadottir: "Food allergy and asthma after liver transplantation in children." 9th October 2023
  • Saphira Felicitas Baumgarten: "iPSC derived building blocks for the fat liver axis." 13th October 2023

Selected publications

  • Harrison SP, Baumgarten SF, Chollet ME, Stavik B, Bhattacharya A, Almaas R, Sullivan GJ. Parenteral nutrition emulsion inhibits CYP3A4 in an iPSC derived liver organoids testing platform. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2024 May;78(5):1047-1058.
  • Ziegler A, Sæves I, Almaas R. Differences in bile acid profiles between cholestatic diseases - Development of a high throughput assay for dried bloodspots. Clin Chim Acta. 2024 Aug 15;562:119864. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2024.119864. Epub 2024 Jul 9.
  • Kaijansinkko H, Bonthuis M, Jahnukainen K, Harambat J, Vidal E, Bakkaloglu SA, Inward C, Sinha MD, Roperto RM, Kuehni CE, Biró E, Kwon T, Mota C, Adams B, Szczepańska M, Bieniaś B, Höcker B, Fomina S, Gjerstad AC, Vondrak K, Alpay H, Plumb LA, Hommel K, Molchanova MS, Hubmann H, Alonso-Melgar A, Jager KJ, Jahnukainen T. Clinical outcomes of pediatric kidney replacement therapy after childhood cancer-An ESPN/ERA Registry study. Am J Transplant. 2024 Nov 7:S1600-6135(24)00686-5.
  • Chen A, Yangzom T, Hong Y, Lundberg BC, Sullivan GJ, Tzoulis C, Bindoff LA, Liang KX. Hallmark Molecular and Pathological Features of POLG Disease are Recapitulated in Cerebral Organoids. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024 May;11(18):e2307136.