KinN Therapeutics is a privately held, preclinical service company providing preclinical solutions for novel anticancer therapies, companion diagnostics, and biomarker panels designed for clinical trials.

KinN Therapeutics is a Bergen, Norway -based biopharmaceutical company focused on preclinical service for development of novel anticancer compounds in the crossroad of small molecule inhibitors and immunotherapy.

At KinN Therapeutics we believe that the current dogma of rushing novel pharmaceuticals through inappropriate preclinical models is one of the major reasons for their limited clinical penetration. This can only be solved through multidisciplinary development of preclinical surrogates, models and diagnostic tools that more accurately mimic clinical conditions.

To this end, we tailor each individual model system to actively interrogate the clinical potential of your novel therapeutics through our fully characterized immunocompetent PDX models, companion imaging platforms and surrogate biomarker analysis. We actively collaborate with our partners to provide unprecedented preclinical analysis of your target and guidance for future entrance into clinical trial.

Management Team

Emmet Mc Cormack

Emmet Mc Cormack, PhD is Professor of Pharmacy, Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen. His research focus is the development and effective translation of novel therapies and imaging strategies for the treatment of cancer, particularly cancers with limited therapeutic options. He is board member of the Norwegian Oncology Society, Council member of the European Society of Molecular Imaging, node leader in EATRIS Imaging and Tracing platform and Chairman of KinN Therapeutics AS.

Bjørn Tore Gjertsen

Co-founder of KinN Therapeutics AS, Bjørn Tore Gjertsen, MD, PhD. is Professor at the Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen. Dr. Gjertsen is also Chief of Research and Senior Consultant Hematologist at Haukeland University Hospital. From 2016 Dr. Gjertsen was appointed as co-Director of Centre for Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO) Norwegian Centre of Excellence, University of Bergen (UiB), and from 2017 Associate Investigator at Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway/Nordic EMBL partnership.

Jan Nore

Board member Jan Nore holds a MSc degree in Economics and business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics and Administration (NHH). Nore is also educated Master Mariner at Bergen Maritime School. Nore has significant experience in financing, broking industries and shipping companies. Nore is currently also a Chief Financial Officer at DOF Subsea.

Line Bjørge

Board member Line Bjørge, MD, PhD, MBA, holds the position as medical director in Gynecologic oncology at Helse Bergen HF and is professor in Obstetrics and gynecology and associated investigator at Center for Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO) at the University of Bergen (UiB). She holds the position as leader for Onkologisk Forum, is member of the board for The Norwegian Cancer Society and is one of two gynecologists in the newly established national second-opinion panel for incurable diseases. She is also active in in the Nordic Society for Gynecologic Oncology, and from 2018 she holds the position as president elect.

Research Team

Mihaela Popa

Mihaela Popa, DVM, COO, is the leading veterinarian of KinN Therapeutics. She has over 10 years of experience in the development of pre-clinical cancer models and multimodal imaging modalities.

Calum Leitch

Calum Leitch, M. Sc., PhD, Principal Scientist, has been working on the identification and repurposing of approved medicines for therapy development in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Leitch holds great expertise in pre-clinical research using PDX models as well as mass and flow cytometry.

Constance de Montlaur

Constance de Montlaur, M. Sc., PhD, laboratory engineer, has a PhD in physiology. She is involved in pre-clinical testing of new compounds.

Cara E. WogslandCara Wogsland, PhD, Senior Researcher, is heading up mass cytometry (CyTOF) research at KinN Therapeutics. Her expertise lies in high-dimensional single-cell immunology of human tissues&nb…

Cara E. Wogsland

Cara Wogsland, PhD, Senior Researcher, is heading up mass cytometry (CyTOF) research at KinN Therapeutics. Her expertise lies in high-dimensional single-cell immunology of human tissues and mouse models of cancer. Wogsland has over a decade of experience in mass cytometry, spanning the full spectrum from panel design and tissue collection to advanced computational analysis.

Mireia Mayoral Safont

Mireia Mayoral Safont, B. Sc., laboratory engineer, has a bachelor degree in Biology, and three years’ experience from the pharmaceutical industry. In KinN Therapeutics, Safont plays a lead role in pre-clinical studies and has great experience in flow cytometry and PK/PD modeling.

 

Key Publications

At KinN Therapeutics we value high-quality research that stands up to peer review. Below are a few publications our team members have contributed to.

 

Kleinmanns K, Gullaksen SE, Bredholt G, Davidson B, Torkildsen CF, Grindheim S, Bjørge L, McCormack E. Humanized Ovarian Cancer Patient-Derived Xenografts for Improved Preclinical Evaluation of Immunotherapies. Cancers (Basel). 2022; 14(13):3092. Epub 20220623. doi: 10.3390/cancers14133092. PubMed PMID: 35804867; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9265069; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35804867

 

Kotopoulis S, Popa M, Mayoral Safont M, Murvold E, Haugse R, Langer A, Dimcevski G, Lam C, Bjånes T, Gilja OH, McCormack E. SonoVue® vs. Sonazoid™ vs. Optison™: Which Bubble Is Best for Low-Intensity Sonoporation of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma? Pharmaceutics. 2022; 14(1). Epub 20220101. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14010098. PubMed PMID: 35056994; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8777813; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35056994

 

Popa M, Fosse V, Kleinmanns K, Bjørge L, McCormack E. Xenograft Models of Ovarian Cancer for Therapy Evaluation. In: Kreeger PK, editor. Ovarian Cancer: Methods and Protocols. New York, NY: Springer US; 2022. p. 275-93. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1956-8_18

 

Eikrem O, Kotopoulis S, Popa M, Mayoral Safont M, Fossan KO, Leh S, Landolt L, Babickova J, Gudbrandsen OA, Gilja OH, Riedel B, Schjott J, McCormack E, Marti HP. Ultrasound and Microbubbles Enhance Uptake of Doxorubicin in Murine Kidneys. Pharmaceutics. 2021; 13(12). Epub 20211129. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13122038. PubMed PMID: 34959319; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8703523; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34959319

 

García de Jalón E, Kleinmanns K, Fosse V, Davidson B, Bjørge L, Haug BE, McCormack E. Comparison of Five Near-Infrared Fluorescent Folate Conjugates in an Ovarian Cancer Model. Mol Imaging Biol. 2021. Epub 20211210. doi: 10.1007/s11307-021-01685-y. PubMed PMID: 34888759; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34888759

 

Ruiz de Garibay G, García de Jalón E, Stigen E, Lund KB, Popa M, Davidson B, Safont MM, Rygh CB, Espedal H, Barrett TM, Haug BE, McCormack E. Repurposing 18F-FMISO as a PET tracer for translational imaging of nitroreductase-based gene directed enzyme prodrug therapy. Theranostics. 2021; 11(12):6044-57. Epub 20210407. doi: 10.7150/thno.55092. PubMed PMID: 33897898; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8058731; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33897898

 

Schultz CW, Ruiz de Garibay G, Langer A, Liu JB, Dhir T, Leitch C, Wessner CE, Mayoral M, Zhang B, Popa M, Huang C, Kotopoulis S, Luo X, Zhen Y, Niu S, et al. Selecting the optimal parameters for sonoporation of pancreatic cancer in a pre-clinical model. Cancer Biol Ther. 2021; 22(3):204-15. Epub 20210310. doi: 10.1080/15384047.2021.1881026. PubMed PMID: 33691611; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8043187; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33691611

 

Wogsland CE, Lien HE, Pedersen L, Hanjra P, Grondal SM, Brekken RA, Lorens JB, Halberg N. High-dimensional immunotyping of tumors grown in obese and non-obese mice. Dis Model Mech. 2021; 14(4). Epub 20210330. doi: 10.1242/dmm.048977. PubMed PMID: 33653826; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8033414; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33653826

 

Bjanes T, Kotopoulis S, Murvold ET, Kamceva T, Gjertsen BT, Gilja OH, Schjott J, Riedel B, McCormack E. Ultrasound- and Microbubble-Assisted Gemcitabine Delivery to Pancreatic Cancer Cells. Pharmaceutics. 2020; 12(2). Epub 20200207. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12020141. PubMed PMID: 32046005; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7076495; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32046005

 

Haugse R, Langer A, Gullaksen SE, Sundoy SM, Gjertsen BT, Kotopoulis S, McCormack E. Intracellular Signaling in Key Pathways Is Induced by Treatment with Ultrasound and Microbubbles in a Leukemia Cell Line, but Not in Healthy Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells. Pharmaceutics. 2019; 11(7). Epub 20190706. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics11070319. PubMed PMID: 31284599; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6680714; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31284599

 

Huse K, Wogsland CE, Polikowsky HG, Diggins KE, Smeland EB, Myklebust JH, Irish JM. Human Germinal Center B Cells Differ from Naive and Memory B Cells in CD40 Expression and CD40L-Induced Signaling Response. Cytometry A. 2019; 95(4):442-9. Epub 20190305. doi: 10.1002/cyto.a.23737. PubMed PMID: 30838773; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6711772; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30838773

 

Kotopoulis S, Stigen E, Popa M, Safont MM, Healey A, Kvale S, Sontum P, Gjertsen BT, Gilja OH, McCormack E. Sonoporation with Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT®) induces transient tumour volume reduction in a subcutaneous xenograft model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. J Control Release. 2017; 245:70-80. Epub 20161118. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2016.11.019. PubMed PMID: 27871988; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27871988

 

Gelebart P, Popa M, McCormack E. Xenograft Models of Primary Acute Myeloid Leukemia for the Development of Imaging Strategies and Evaluation of Novel Targeted Therapies. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2016; 17(1):42-51. doi: 10.2174/1389201016666150817095703. PubMed PMID: 26278528; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26278528

 

Helland Ø, Popa M, Bischof K, Gjertsen BT, McCormack E, Bjørge L. The HDACi Panobinostat Shows Growth Inhibition Both In Vitro and in a Bioluminescent Orthotopic Surgical Xenograft Model of Ovarian Cancer. PLoS One. 2016; 11(6):e0158208. Epub 20160628. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158208. PubMed PMID: 27352023; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4924861; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27352023

 

Leitch C, Osdal T, Andresen V, Molland M, Kristiansen S, Nguyen XN, Bruserud Ø, Gjertsen BT, McCormack E. Hydroxyurea synergizes with valproic acid in wild-type p53 acute myeloid leukaemia. Oncotarget. 2016; 7(7):8105-18. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.6991. PubMed PMID: 26812881; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4884979; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26812881

 

Haldorsen IS, Popa M, Fonnes T, Brekke N, Kopperud R, Visser NC, Rygh CB, Pavlin T, Salvesen HB, McCormack E, Krakstad C. Multimodal Imaging of Orthotopic Mouse Model of Endometrial Carcinoma. PLoS One. 2015; 10(8):e0135220. Epub 20150807. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135220. PubMed PMID: 26252891; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4529312; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26252891

 

Helland Ø, Popa M, Vintermyr OK, Molven A, Gjertsen BT, Bjørge L, McCormack E. First in-mouse development and application of a surgically relevant xenograft model of ovarian carcinoma. PLoS One. 2014; 9(3):e89527. Epub 20140304. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089527. PubMed PMID: 24594904; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3942384; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24594904

A more comprehensive publication list can be found here.

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