Jarle Breivik (MD, PhD)

Associate Professor
Institute for Basic Medical Science

Director of Research Education

Faculty of Medicine

University of Oslo

P.O.Box 1018 Blindern

NO-0315 Oslo

Norway

 

Phone:

 

Mobile:

 

Fax:

 

E-mail:

 

Web:

 

+47 22 84 50 27

 

+47 41 44 19 85

 

+47 22 84 53 01

 

jbreivik@medisin.uio.no

 

http://folk.uio.no/jbreivik/

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Evolution of cancer

My primary research interest concerns the connection between cancer development and evolutionary biology. Cancer development represents an evolutionary and ecological process within the body of an organism, and I aim to model and understand this process in an interdisciplinary perspective. My most significant achievement in this field concerns the evolutionary relationship between environmental factors and rise of genetic instability. This model has been tested and confirmed by several experimental studies.

Popularized articles concerning my research:

-       No solution to cancer? Science Daily (2007) April 17.

-       Have our genes evolved to turn against us? PhysOrg.com (2007) April 16. 

-       Evolved for cancer? Zimmer C. Scientific American (2007) 296, 68-74.

-       Untangling the roots of cancer. Gibbs WW. Scientific American (2003) 289, 56-65.

     In Norwegian:

-       Kreftgåten er uløselig. Aas, H. Apollon (2007) 1, 20-23.

-       Darwinistisk logikk - provokasjon og ressurs i medisinsk tenkning. Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association (2002) 122, 2809-2811.

Selected science papers:

-       Don't stop for repairs in a war zone: Darwinian evolution unites genes and environment in cancer development. Breivik, J. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. (2001) 98, 5379-5381.

-       Resolving the evolutionary paradox of genetic instability: a cost-benefit analysis of DNA repair in changing environments. Breivik, J. & Gaudernack, G. FEBS Lett. (2004) 563, 7-12.

-       The evolutionary origin of genetic instability in cancer development. Breivik, J. Semin. Cancer Biol. (2005) 15, 51-60.

-       Cancer - evolution within. Breivik, J. Int. J. Epidemiol. (2006) 35, 1161-1162.

 

Education and understanding of life science

My second interest concerns education and public understanding of life science. I pursue this interest as:

Director of Research Education at the Faculty of Medicine – an organization comprising more than a thousand PhD-projects and a comprehensive portfolio of courses.

Project manager of the science communication project ‘What is a gene? How the media communicate the concept of genes to the general public’ in collaboration with PhD student Rebecca Carver and Prof. Ragnar Waldahl. See recent press release and article:

-       What is a gene?

-       Frame that gene. Carver R, Waldahl R & Breivik J EMBO rep. (2008)

Manager of Scitorium – Taste of Science.

 

Self-replicating machines

My third interest concerns self-replication and the fundamentals of living system. I hold the patent  for making physical objects (e.g. robotic toys) that replicate like DNA molecules:

-       System which can reversibly reproduce itself. Breivik, J. (2001) US Patent 6,652,285.

-       Self-organization of template-replicating polymers and the spontaneous rise of genetic information. Breivik J. Entropy (2001) 3, 273-279.

 

This patent, which is not limited to size, is commented in a recent review on nanomedicine:

-       Current Status of Nanomedicine and Medical Nanorobotics. Freitas, RA.Jr. J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. (2005) 2, 1-25.

Research group

Rebecca Carver (r.carver@online.no)

Rebecca got her MSc in science communication from Imperial College London and is currently doing her PhD on the project ‘What is a gene? How the media communicate the concept of genes to the general public’.

Marie Bergem-Ohr (marie.bergem-ohr@studmed.uio.no)

Marie is a medical student enrolled in the Medical Student Research Program with the project ‘Selfish genes and the Darwinian evolution of cancer’.