Disputas- Cand. med. Aline Bjerkhaug

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her!  The doctoral thesis! Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne holdes kl. 10.15, samme sted: "Is all inflammation in the newborn bad?" Prøveforelesningen vil også bli strømmet/the trail lecture will also be streamed.  Disputasen starter 1215 i Auditorium Cortex. Disputasen vil bli strømmet her. Opptak av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn. The defense will be streamed here. A recording of the disputation will be available for 24 hours.

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag av avhandlingen:

Neonatal sepsis, a bloodstream infection in newborns, affects approximately 3000 infants out of every 100,000 births worldwide, claiming the lives of nearly 18% of its vulnerable victims. Group B streptococci (GBS) are leading bacterial pathogens of infections among newborn infants globally.
The three studies (Paper I-III) presented in this thesis represent collaborative efforts, comprising of local, national, and international researchers united in the pursuit of solutions to combat neonatal sepsis.In our first study (Paper I) we explored immune modulation within the context of neonatal inflammation, utilizing a sophisticated blood model. The findings yielded insights into the potential efficacy of immune inhibitors in attenuating harmful immune responses, similar to those observed in neonatal sepsis.  

In our second study (Paper II) we systematically reviewed clinical trials on GBS vaccines, aiming to decipher their immunogenicity and safety across heterogeneous populations. While our review showcased the promise of GBS vaccination in mitigating the burden of GBS-related diseases, it also underscored the imperative for future robust, large-scale investigations to substantiate these claims. 

In our third study (Paper III) we investigated maternal and cord plasma GBS antibodies, in a case-control study of infants with invasive GBS disease and healthy controls, within the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child cohort (MoBa). Here, we observed that diminished levels of GBS antibodies were associated with increased susceptibility to invasive late-onset GBS disease (serotype III), shedding light on the critical role of maternal immunity in neonatal health. 

In summary, this thesis contributes new information on potential future adjunctive therapy for neonatal sepsis and supports further studies on GBS vaccines to alleviate the global burden of invasive GBS disease.

Hovedveileder

Professor Claus Klingenberg, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.

Biveiledere
Førsteamanuensis Hildegunn Norbakken Granslo, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Førsteamanuensis Jorunn Pauline Cavanagh, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet. 

Bedømmelseskomité
1. opponent: Anders Elfvin, Professor in Pediatrics and Physician in Pediatrics and Neonatology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
2. opponent: Terhi Ruuska, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, Finland. 
3. opponent og leder av komité: Professor Johanna U. Ericson, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet/UNN

Disputasleder: Professor Gustav Bellika, Institutt for klinisk medisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.