Rate My Professor Kjetil Tasken

Kjetil Taskén, M.D., Ph.D., earned his M.D. in 1991 and Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology in 1994 from the University of Oslo. He was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of Oslo in 2001, initially at the Institute for Basic Medical Sciences, and since 2018 at the Institute of Clinical Medicine. Taskén has served as Group Leader in the Department of Cancer Immunology at the Institute of Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital, since 1997, becoming Head and Director of the institute in 2018. He also directs the OUH Centre for Precision Medicine in Cancer since 2021. His prior leadership roles include Director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway from 2008 to 2018, Director of the Biotechnology Centre of Oslo from 2003 to 2016, and Chair of the Faculty of Medicine Thematic Research Programme for Signal Transduction from 2001 to 2005. Earlier positions encompass Senior Scientist and Group Leader at the Institute for Basic Medical Sciences, postdoctoral fellowships, and clinical internships in medicine, surgery, and general practice.

Taskén's research specializations encompass immune regulation and cancer immunology, cancer precision medicine, cancer biology, cell signaling in health and disease, drug development, and translational medicine. His group studies tumor immune evasion mechanisms to boost anti-tumor immunity, regulatory T cell targets, cancer drug sensitivity screening in patient-derived cells for personalized therapies, and clinical implementation of precision cancer medicine through initiatives like IMPRESS-Norway. He has authored over 295 peer-reviewed articles, cited more than 14,000 times with an h-index of 63, including key publications such as Taskén & Mahon (2025) 'Accelerating precision oncology by converging pragmatic trials and real-world evidence' in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery; Tasken et al. (2024) 'PCM4EU and PRIME-ROSE: Collaboration for implementation of precision cancer medicine in Europe' in Acta Oncologica; and Diaz, Wei & Tasken (2023) 'Small molecule inhibitors targeting regulatory T cells for cancer treatment' in European Journal of Immunology. Taskén has received major awards including the UiO Innovation Prize (2023), King Olav V’s Prize for Cancer Research (2016), Anders Jahre Medical Award for Younger Scientists (2002), Faculty Medal from the UiO Faculty of Medicine (2018), and Digitalis Purpurea Award (2018). He has delivered over 300 lectures worldwide and contributes to advancing precision oncology in Norway and Europe.