Company history

D’Liver AS was established in Tromsø on January 7^th 2011 by Norinnova Technology Transfer AS, Professor Bård Smedsrød, Dr. Kjetil H. Elvevold and the three students Marsil Andelov Al-Mahamid, Mari Nilsen and Tage Skotvold. Over thirty years of research by Professor Bård Smedsrød form the basis of the services offered by D’Liver.

D’Liver is a spin-off from UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. The commercial potential of D’Liver was examined by Norinnova Technology Transfer AS in collaboration with the three students at the master program Business Creation and Entrepreneurship at Tromsø University Business School in 2010. Subsequently, D’Liver became an incubator company at Incubator Tromsø and received establishing grants from Innovation Norway. In June 2011 PreeCap AS invested in D’Liver AS and in 2013 an investor team bought the company. 

Founding team members

Inventor Prof. Bård H. Smedsrød

Professor Smedsrød is presently head of the Vascular Biology Research Group at Department of Medical Biology, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway. He was head of Department of Medical Biology (about 200 employees) during 2005 – 2009, and took the organization through a reorganization that contributed greatly to turning serious deficit to a balanced economy. Smedsrød holds a Bachelor (cand.mag) from University of Oslo (1975) and a Master in cell biology (cand.real) from University of Tromsø in 1978, spent two years as research fellow at University of Michigan (1979-1981), moved to Uppsala in 1981 and defended his Ph.D. thesis at the Department of Medical Chemistry, University of Uppsala in 1984. He was employed there as associate professor until he moved to University of Tromsø in 1988 as senior scientist paid by the Norwegian Cancer Society, and became associate professor at the Department of Medical Biology in 1990. He was appointed full professor in cell biology at the Department of Medical Biology in 1993. Smedsrød has spent his entire research career studying the blood clearance function of liver. He discovered the physiological clearance function of the LSEC in the early 80s and has since then significantly increased our understanding of the uptake mechanisms of liver cells. This unique knowledge makes up the basis of D'Liver.

Co-Inventor Dr. Kjetil H. Elvevold

Elvevold finished his M.Sc. in 1997. He wrote his master thesis on “Lysosomal enzymes in liver endothelial cells” and had Prof. Smedsrød as his supervisor. He then became a Research Fellow at the Institute of Medical Biology at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø (Norway).  In 2000, Dr. Elvevold continued with a Ph.D., which he fulfilled in 2005, on “Scavenger function of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells in vivo and in vitro” and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow on strategies to manipulate the uptake mechanisms of the liver sinusoidal endothelial cell. From 2008-2012 Elvevold worked as a researcher at the Department of Clinical Pathology, University Hospital of North Norway in a commissioned research project financed by Biotec Pharmacon ASA to investigate intracellular responses upon stimulation with the immunomodulation agent betaglucan. 

Entrepreneurs

Marsil Andelov Al-Mahamid, Mari Nilsen and Tage Skotvold got involved with D’Liver in 2010 through the master program Business Creation and Entrepreneurship at Tromsø University Business School. Together they wrote the master thesis “D’Liver: Market Ready and Market Needed. Planning a Viable Future”.