Bergithe Eikeland Oftedal

I am a molecular biologist working in the field of immunogenetics focusing on endocrine autoimmune disease. Since my dissertation in 2012 at the University of Bergen I continued as a post-Doc with a one-year stay with Professor Hamish Scott at the University of Adelaide working in genetics. I was further awarded a mobility grant from the Norwegian Research council spending two years with Professor Georg Holländer at the University of Oxford working with T cell development in the thymus. Since 2019 I have been employed as a senior researcher in the KG Jebsen Centre for Autoimmune Diseases and was recently awarded the prestigious Excellence Emerging Investigator grant from the Novo Nordic foundation, starting January 2022. My long-term goal is to characterise genetic and molecular mechanisms of gene regulation within the adaptive immune system that are crucial for the development of tolerant T cells and B cells and combine this knowledge in multivariant disease models to better predict the onset of autoimmune tissue destruction. In addition, I am ambitious to extend my international network with the possibility for long-term collaborations.