Hanne Scholz (MSc, PhD) is Senior Researcher and Head of the Islet Isolation Facility at the Oslo University Hospital, University of Oslo, Norway. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Bioengineering from Bergen College of Engineering (1994), an MSc in Human Physiology from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (2000) from the University of Oslo, and a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine (2006).
Dr Scholz leads a significant research programme within the Department of Transplantation at the Institute for Surgical Research at the University of Oslo, aiming to improve and optimise islet isolation, beta cell replacement therapies and patient outcomes. The Scholz lab has led to multiple publications involving regenerative medicine projects, such as developing new cellular therapies for diabetes using stem cells and 3D bio-printing biomimetic pancreatic islets. Her research programme is highly multidisciplinary and comprises clinicians, transplant surgeon, technicians, postdoctoral researchers and students in different disciplines. In addition, the Scholz group is part of the Hybrid Technology Hub, a Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo, which aims to develop ‘organ on a chip’ platforms of functional metabolic human tissue.
She has been published in numerous leading journals relating to diabetes and cell biology (1465 citations; H index, 23), including Diabetes, Diabetologia, Current Diabetes Reports, Cell Transplantation, Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, Transplantation International, Circulation and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Dr Scholz is an active board member of the Nordic Network for Clinical Islet Transplantation, a member of the Oslo Diabetes Research Centre, and a Councilor of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplantation Association (IPITA – 2017-2021) and the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT – 2019-2023).