Toril Mørkve Knudsen

Position

Postdoctoral Fellow

Affiliation

Research

Toril Mørkve Knudsen currently holds a postdoctoral position at the UIB which is connected to a research project led by Cecilie Svanes that will study cross-generational respiratory and epigenetic impacts of environmental exposures in indigenous communities in Guatemala.

As part of her research activities, she is involved in the execution of the Bergen study centre's data collection in the EU funded project “The Exposome Project for Health and Occupational Research” (EPHOR), which aims to investigate working life exposomes, lung function and obstructive lung disease in the general population. The research work in EPHOR includes implementing methods and models for the collection, storage and analyses of exposome data in collaboration with a broader project consortium, which consists of 20 exposure, health and data scientists and technology partners from 12 different countries.

In her PhD work, Toril Mørkve Knudsen has combined epigenetic and epidemiological data and analyses to investigate potential mechanisms on how paternal smoking trajectories can affect the development and phenotypic variation in his offspring. Her main focus of research are epidemiological and epigenetic analyses in two-generational cohorts, cross-generational transfer of environmental exposures and genomic DNA methylation patterns and outcomes related to overweight, fat mass and respiratory health. 

 

Publications
Academic article
Academic literature review

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Negusse T Kitaba*, Gerd Toril Mørkve Knudsen*, Ane Johannessen, Faisal I. Rezwan, Andrei Malinovschi, Anna Oudin, Bryndis Benediktsdottir, David Martino, Francisco Javier Callejas González, Leopoldo Palacios Gómez, Mathias Holm, Nils Oskar Jogi, Shyamali C. Dharmage, Svein Magne Skulstad, Sarah H. Watkins, Mathew Suderman, Francisco Gómez-Real, Vivi Schlünssen, Cecilie Svanes, John W. Holloway. Fathers´preconception smoking and offspring DNA methylation. Clin Epigenet 15, 131 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s/3148-023-01540-7

Juan Pablo López-Cervantes, Marianne Lønnebotn, Nils oskar Jogi, Lucia Calciano, Ingrid Nordeide Kuiper, Matthew G. Darby, Shyamali C. Dharmage, Francisco Gómez-Real, Barbara Hammer, Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, Ane Johannessen, Anne Mette Lund Würtz, Toril Mørkve Knudsen, Kathrine Pape, Svein Magne Skulstad, Signe Timm, Gro Tjalvin, Susanne Krauss-Etschmann, Simone Accordini, Vivi Schlünssen, Jorun Kirkeleit, Cecilie Svanes. The Exposome Approach in Allergies and Lung Diseases: Is It Time to Define a Preconception Exposome? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2021, 18(23), 12684; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph 182312684

 

Barbara Hammer, Latha Kadalayil,  Eistine Boateng,  Dominik Buschmann,  Faisal I. Rezwan, Martin Wolff, Sebastian Reuter, Sabine Bartel, Toril Mørkve Knudsen, Cecilie Svanes, John W. Holloway, Susanne Krauss-Etschmann.  Preconceptional smoking alters spermatozoal miRNAs of murine fathers and affects offspring’s body weight.  International Journal of Obesity (2021) 45:1623–1627, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-00798-2.

G.T. Mørkve Knudsen, Shyamali Dharmage, Christer Janson, Michael J Abramson, Bryndis Benediktdottir, Andrei Malinovschi, S.M Skulstad, Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, Francisco Gomez Real, Vivi Schlünssen, Nils Oskar Jögi, Jose Luis Sanchez-Ramos, Mathias Holm, Judith Garcia-Aymerich, Bertil Forsberg, Cecilie Svanes, Ane Johannessen. Parents smoking onset before conception as related to body mass index and fat mass in adult offspring: Findings from the RHINESSA generation study. PLoS One. 2020 Jul 6,14(7):e0235632. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235632. eCollection 2020.

G.T. Mørkve Knudsen*, F.I. Rezwan*, A. Johannessen, S.M. Skulstad, R.J. Bertelsen, F.G. Real, S. Krauss-Etschmann, V. Patil, D. Jarvis, S.H. Arshad, J.W. Holloway, C. Svanes. Epigenome-wide association of father’s smoking with offspring DNA methylation: a hypothesis-generating study. Environmental Epigenetics, 2019, 1–10. doi: 10.1093/eep/dvz023.

Toril Mørkve Knudsen*, Faisal I. Rezwan*, Yu Jiang, Wilfried Karmaus, Cecilie Svanes, John W. Holloway. Transgenerational and intergenerational epigenetic inheritance in allergic diseases.  Allergy Clin Immunol. 2018 Sep;142(3):765-772. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2018.07.007. Epub 2018 Jul 21.

Bircan Erbas, Toril Mørkve Knudsen, Christer Janson, Roy M. Nilsen, Simone Accordini, Bryndis Benediktdottir, Julia Dratva, Joachim Heinrichh, Debbie Jarvis, Benedcite Leynaert, Melanie C. Matheson, Dan Norbäck, Francisco G. Real, Chantal Raherison-Semjen, Simona Villanin, S.C. Dharmage, C. Svanes. Critical age windows in the impact of lifetime smoking exposure on respiratory symptoms and disease among ever smokers. Environmental Research 164 (2018) 241–247.

Mørkve T, Aanerud M, Skulstad SM, Svanes C. Barneastma og KOLS. Allergi i Praksis 2011;2:18-22.

Knudsen TM, Mørkve O, Mfinanga S, Hardie JA. Predictive equations for spirometric reference values in a healthy adult suburban population in Tanzania. Tanz J Health Res 2011;13(3):214-223.

 

Projects

Pesticides and exposures from traditional textile industry associated with own and offspring health in indigenous Guatemalan communitites.

The project is anchored at the UIB and Helse Bergen RHINESSA multi-generation studies and research network, and will under leadership by Cecilie Svanes be conducted in close partnership between the Institute of Nutrition of Central America And Panama (INCAP, https://www.incap.int/index.php/en/), and the Guatemala-based civil society organizations Centre for Equity and Governance for Healthcare (CEGSS, https://cegss.org.gt/en/) and the Community Defenders for the Right to Health (CDRH). Through shared leadership, scientific responsibilities, funding and training of researchers and staff, the study aims to ensure local competence building, build trust and partnership with the communities and stakeholders and shape policy processes for improvement of respiratory and public health.

The Exposome Project for Health and Occupational Research (EPHOR, https://www.ephor-project.eu).

Investigating working life exposomes, lung function and obstructive lung disease in the general population.

Academic qualifications

Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, University of Bergen (2023-)

 

Philosophia Doctor (PhD), Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen (2023). Title of thesis «Fathers’ smoking in different time windows as related to offspring’s epigenetic and phenotypic outcomes».

 

Master of philosophy (MPhil) in international health and epidemiology, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen (2010). Title of master's project «Prevalence of Respiratory Symptoms and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Reference Values for Lung Function Testing in Kinondoni District, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania».

 

Bachelor of Science (BSc) in physiotherapy, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (2003).