Carina Strell

Carina Strell is researcher within the Center for Biomarker Research (CCBIO) at the Department of Clinical Medicine and is leading the TMS starting grant project “EvoMaps – Understanding Early Breast Cancer Evolution in Space and Time”. Carina obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the University Witten-Herdecke in Germany. She performed her postdoctoral studies at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and worked as a senior researcher at the Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University. In 2020 Carina became Associate Professor in experimental pathology at Uppsala University and joined the University of Bergen in August 2022.

The aim of “EvoMaps” is to develop and apply novel tools for spatial tissue profiling in order to gather a better understanding on the underlying biology of subclonal expansion during early breast cancer evolution in the microenvironmental context. The hypothesis is that already during early breast cancer stages, cellular ecosystems are formed, in which cancer cell clones evolve through direct interactions with cells in their adjacent microenvironment and adapt biological competencies connected to therapy resistance. “EvoMaps” will reach beyond the biological aspects and aims to develop refined treatment stratification models for particularly women with early breast cancer, thereby contributing to the UN sustainability goal 3. In the long term, Carina expects “EvoMaps” to reveal new therapeutical targets to overcome therapy resistance in early breast cancer, as well as other cancer types.