The Institute for Surgical Research made a name for itself
in international
research as early as 1969, with the first doctor's thesis, by
Professor
Sten Sander. Sander worked as a scholarship holder with the
Nobel Prize
winner Charles D. Huggins, and demonstrated that the development
of breast
cancer depended on oestrogenic hormones, and that prevention
of oestradiol
production could be used in the treatment of the condition.
After eight
years, a total of eight doctor's theses had been published from
the
Institute, and today this figure has risen to hundred and ten.
The Institute made important contributions to cardiovascular
research as
early as the beginning of the 1970s, when a new heart valve
was developed
-the Hall-Kaster valve -which is still a leading heart valve
internationally. At the same time, a group of researchers
was working on
measuring the blood flow rate in the heart, using the Doppler
ultrasound
principle, and basic work on the further development of this
technology has
been carried out in the Institute. Today, the Doppler ultrasound
technique
is the most commonly used method of diagnosing heart valve
defects, and is
one of the most important advances in diagnostic procedures
in modern
cardiac medicine.
The Institute for Surgical Research has also obtained a central
position in
the field of transplantation surgery at The National Hospital.
For example,
surgeons were able to use experimental animals here to practise
operation
techniques for transplanting organs. From the 1980s until
the present day,
the Institute has also made important contributions to the
understanding of
diastolic heart failure. The Institute has become an international
leader
in research on infection problems in surgery , and carries
out research at
a high level in the fields of orthopaedics, pharmacology,
brain research,
and radiology .In recent years, the Institute's expertise
in molecular
biology has enhanced its international profile.
Today, The Institute for Surgical Research has six groups
of researchers
working in surgical intensive care medicine and transplantation,
cerebral
pathophysiology, cardiovascular function, molecular cardiology,
experimental orthopaedic surgery, and experimental radiology.
There are also many researchers from other institutes and
departments
engaged on individual projects. Altogether, there are almost
fifty people
working in the Institute. The research activity in the Institute
is
presented regularly as lectures, annual reports, and in collaboration
between researchers.
Through its nearly 40 years of research activity, the Institute
has
demonstrated that the investment that started with a generous
donation from
The Norwegian Society for Fighting Cancer has yielded good
returns.
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