Trine B Rounge's research interest is in genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, microbiome research and development of cancer biomarkers. Her overall research goal is to identify DNA and/or RNA patterns from tissue, bio fluids or associated microbes that reveals cancer progression at an early stage.
Trine has a broad background in bioinformatics and molecular biology. Her expertise is in designing and establishing next generation sequencing protocols and the subsequent bioinformatics.
Together with Hilde Langseth, Trine is the PI of a large-scale project aiming to identify circulating RNAs cancer biomarkers using serum samples, funded by the Norwegian Research Council - JanusRNA. The research group have developed a small RNA sequencing protocol tailored for low RNA yield samples and done extensive characterization of RNA profiles of healthy individuals and confounding variables. In this project, they have profiled pre-diagnostic samples from seven different cancer sites. In total, more than 4000 samples have been analysed. Bioinformatic, regression and machine learning methods are applied. She also works with projects related to genome-wide differential DNA methylation in three different projects.
Trine is the PI of the project CRCbiome funded by the Norwegian Cancer Society and HSØ, aiming to identify biomarkers in the gut microbiome for use in colorectal cancer screening. In collaboration with Paula Berstad they lead an effort to elucidate the interplay between the microbiome, lifestyle, diet and medication use on colorectal cancer development.
She is also one of the leaders in a cross-institutional group that works with development of methods and analyses of genomic events and variation in persistent infection of Human Papillomavirus, with aim to discover if the accumulation of these events can be used in cervical cancer screening.