Stein-Erik Gullaksen is a postdoctoral fellow at the Medical Department, Helse Bergen HF, where he is associated with the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Myeloid Blood Cancer (C-MYC) and Centre of Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO). He holds a PhD from the University of Bergen (2018) and an M.S. and B.S. in Nanotechnology from the same institution. His doctoral work focused high-dimensional single cell analysis of blood samples from patients in clinical trials using mass cytometry. Gullaksen is interested in precision medicine approaches for optimizing treatment in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a myeloproliferative stem cell disorder effectively treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). He employs mass cytometry to profile single cells from longitudinal peripheral blood samples of CML patients enrolled in international clinical trials. His research focuses on early prediction of treatment response using machine learning and characterization of TKI-specific signaling signatures. The goal is to enable in the future treatment optimization within days rather than months to secure optimal patient response while limiting toxicity.

Craig E, Pilanci M, Le Menestrel T, Narasimhan B, Rivas MA, Gullaksen SE et al.Pretraining and the lasso. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology. 2025.

Gullaksen SE, Omsland M, Brevik M, Letzner J, Haugstvedt S, Gjertsen BT. CML stem cells and their interactions and adaptations to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Leukemia & Lymphoma, 2025 1–10.

Geelen IGP, Gullaksen SE, Ilander MM, Olssen-Strömberg U, Mustjoki S, Richter J, Blijlevens NMA, Smit WM, Gjertsen BT, Gedde-Dahl T, Markevärn B, Koppes MMA, Westerweel PE, Hjorth-Hansen H, Janssen JJWM. Switching from imatinib to nilotinib plus pegylated interferon-α2b in chronic phase CML failing to achieve deep molecular response: clinical and immunological effects. Ann Hematol. 2023 Jun;102(6):1395-1408.

Tislevoll BS, Hellesøy M, Fagerholt OHE, Gullaksen SE, Srivastava A, Birkeland E, Kleftogiannis D, Ayuda-Durán P, Piechaczyk L, Tadele DS, Skavland J, Baliakas P, Hovland R, Andresen V, Seternes OM, Tvedt THA, Aghaeepour N, Gavasso S, Porkka K, Jonassen I, Fløisand Y, Enserink J, Blaser N, Gjertsen BT. Early response evaluation by single cell signaling profiling in acute myeloid leukemia. Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 7;14(1):115. Erratum in: Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 30;14(1):1767.

Gullaksen SE, Skavland J, Gavasso S, Tosevski V, Warzocha K, Dumrese C, Ferrant A, Gedde-Dahl T, Hellmann A, Janssen J, Labar B, Lang A, Majeed W, Mihaylov G, Stentoft J, Stenke L, Thaler J, Thielen N, Verhoef G, Voglova J, Ossenkoppele G, Hochhaus A, Hjorth-Hansen H, Mustjoki S, Sopper S, Giles F, Porkka K, Wolf D, Gjertsen BT. Single cell immune profiling by mass cytometry of newly diagnosed chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia treated with nilotinib. Haematologica. 2017 Aug;102(8):1361-1367.