Tromsø Research Foundation is a crucial pillar for funding long-term research at UiT. The foundation was established with support from philanthropist Trond Mohn in 2007 and now receives annual donations from the Trond Mohn Research Foundation.

Since 2016, the foundation has awarded the TFS Starting Grant (STG) six times. This year, two UiT researchers have each been awarded 12 million Norwegian kroner:

• Mathias Kranz - researcher at the University Hospital of North Norway, UiT's Department of Medical Biology, and the Tumor Biology Research Group (TBRG). Kranz contributes to developing new medical technology that can detect and treat brain cancer.
• Barbara Mizumo Tomotani - researcher at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology and the research group Arctic Seasonal and Timekeeping Initiative (ASTI). She is mapping how the great tit adapts to circadian rhythms as an alien species in Northern Norway.

Pro-rector for Research and Development at UiT, Jan-Gunnar Winther believes this year's allocation goes to researchers who can advance the research frontier in their respective fields.

– The awarding of the TFS Starting Grant is highly prestigious. The applications have undergone a comprehensive academic assessment in addition to meeting the foundation's strategic priorities. All the projects have the potential to advance the research frontier. We look forward to hearing about the results of their important and groundbreaking research, says Winther.

It will open up treatment possibilities not only for brain cancer but also for other cancer diseases.

 

Treatment for brain cancer

Kranz participates in the research project NORTHCARE, where new theranostics methods are being developed. On an international level, researchers from Indonesia, the USA, Thailand, Spain, and Denmark are working in this field. They are using focused ultrasound and PET scanners (Positron Emission Tomography) to detect and treat a very aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma. So far, no treatment has been found for this type of cancer.

“It is a mix of facing this challenge and developing something unique to cure this disease that motivated me to start working in this field. If we succeed, it will open up treatment possibilities not only for brain cancer but also for other cancer diseases. Furthermore, theranostics could help improve conventional chemotherapy, and not just radioactive treatments”, says Kranz.

 

The new knowledge we gain from this project can be used to make predictions about whether other invasive species will be able to colonize this region – for better or worse.

Light adaptation is climate adaptation

How light affects bird behavior is at the heart of Tomotani's research project called "EvoLight: Evolution of biological rhythms under a new light."

A key premise for the research is that both polar night and midnight sun can pose significant challenges, especially for species that move due to climate changes. In Tomotani's research project, the focus is on the great tit, which is a newcomer in Northern Norway. The researchers aim to find out if some individuals of the species have biological clocks or behaviors that provide better chances for survival or abilities to produce more offspring. Based on the great tit, the research team can map how bird species in Northern Norway differ from bird species in other parts of Europe in this area.

“I want to understand if there is room for rapid evolutionary adaptation of their biological clocks to this new environment. The new knowledge we gain from this project can be used to make predictions about whether other invasive species will be able to colonize this region – for better or worse”, explains Tomotani.

 

Tromsø becomes the focal point

The biological clock of animals in the Arctic is a field that interests researchers in countries like Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, the USA, and Austria, and constitutes a separate discipline called chronobiology. Associate Professor at UiT, Shona Wood also works within this discipline, in the research group ASTI. She received startup funds from the Tromsø Research Foundation in 2017.

Both in labs and in nature, international research environments have mapped the biological clock and rhythms of reindeer, insects, seabirds, songbirds, and rodents in the Arctic. In Tomotani's project, methods and procedures that have been applied earlier, will be taken a step further, something she does in collaboration with researchers in the Netherlands.

“We have the perfect starting point in Tromsø and a great collaborative platform in place to do this. The TFS-funded project in Tromsø will be an international focal point for studying the adaptation of biological clocks in the Arctic”, she concludes.