Highlighting the MIBEst project- Molecular Infection Biology Estonia, 2019-2023

MIBEst project's main goal is to strenghten the research capacity on latent and chronic infections of Institute of Technology at University of Tartu by creating long-lasting links with internationally-leading research institutions: the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) at Umeå University, Sweden, and Basel Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland.

Read more: Highlighting the MIBEst project- Molecular Infection Biology Estonia, 2019-2023

Introducing Laura Carroll: Developing and applying methods to analyze massive microbial genomic and metagenomic data sets

Written by Nóra Lehotai, MIMS, Umeå University

Picture: Dr Laura Carroll. Credit: Hans Karlsson.

Dr Laura Carroll, assistant university lecturer at the Department of Clinical Microbiology, DDLS Fellow, MIMS Investigator, UCMR PI and IceLab Affiliate. She wants to develop methods that biologists and clinicians can use to draw conclusions from their omics data—especially genomics and metagenomics data—to improve human, animal and environmental health.

Read more: Introducing Laura Carroll: Developing and applying methods to analyze massive microbial genomic...

New transporter for recycling of bacterial cell wall found

Text written by Ola Nilsson, Umeå University.
Article originally appeared at https://www.umu.se/en/news/new-transporter-for-recycling-of-bacterial-cell-wall-found_11714458/ 

A transporter which some bacteria use to recycle fragments of their cell wall has been discovered by researchers at Umeå university, Sweden. They found that the transporter controls resistance to certain kinds of cell-wall targeting antibiotics.

The transporter that Professor Felipe Cava and PhD student Michael Gilmore at Umeå university have found is vital for cell wall integrity in the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a convenient lab model of some human pathogens.

Read more: New transporter for recycling of bacterial cell wall found

Workshop on advanced electron microscopy imaging techniques in Umeå attracts many participants from the Nordics

Written by Nóra Lehotai. Pictures by Linda Sandblad. 

The first course by MIMS in the frame of the NordForsk grant was held in Umeå in December 2022 under the lead of UCEM and BICU, two imaging facilities at Umeå University.

The Swedish node of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, MIMS, held its first course in Umeå in the frame of the ”NordForsk: Nordic EMBL Partnership Hub” grant during 5-8 December 2022. Two state-of-the-art imaging facilities at Umeå University; Umeå Centre for Electron Microscopy (UCEM) and Biochemical Imaging Centre Umeå (BICU), were the drivers of the workshop where participants could learn about advanced correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) methods.

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New potential target proteins for novel antibiotics discovered

Press release – 30 November, 2022, Umeå, Sweden

New potential target proteins for novel antibiotics discovered

Bacteria are small but tough organisms, partly because their cells are enclosed by a protective cell wall skeleton. Professor Felipe Cava and his team at Umeå University in Sweden and collaborators at Harvard Medical School in the USA, have discovered long-sought proteins needed to maintain the bacterial cell wall structure. These proteins represent a very promising vulnerability for many bacteria that can be exploited by future antimicrobial compounds. The findings are published in Nature.

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André Mateus, MIMS Team Leader, receives ERC Starting Grant

Text by Nóra Lehotai.

Two researchers from Umeå University, André Nyberg (Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation) and André Mateus (Department of Chemistry), receive the prestigious ERC Starting Grant for emerging excellent scientists. Congratulations to André, new ERC laureate! 

Read more: André Mateus, MIMS Team Leader, receives ERC Starting Grant

MIMS Symposium 2022: a platform for showcasing collaboration in basic, translational and clinical research

Written by Gretchen Repasky (Nordic EMBL Partnership) and Nóra Lehotai (MIMS)

MIMS welcomed its Executive Board and research community to the MIMS Symposium to share significant advances in research and its growing Baltic collaborations

On November 11, 2022, the MIMS Symposium highlighted MIMS research and Baltic collaborations for the local scientific community and the visiting MIMS Executive Board.

Read more: MIMS Symposium 2022: a platform for showcasing collaboration in basic, translational and clinical...

How cryo-EM revealed the secrets of enterovirus replication

Written by Nóra Lehotai, Lars-Anders Carlson and Selma Dahmane

How a virus hijacks a host cell to make new virus particles is a key question in the prevention and treatment of virus-caused diseases. Dr Selma Dahmane and Associate Professor Lars-Anders Carlson at Umeå University are the first and last authors of a freshly published paper in Nature Communications that sheds new light on this process. They show how new poliovirus particles are formed inside the infected cell thanks to the latest advancements in cryo-electron tomography. Poliovirus belongs to the group of enteroviruses, a big group of RNA viruses that also includes for example the common cold-causing rhinoviruses, or enterovirus D68 that can cause severe respiratory disease and paralysis in children. Polio itself has caused disease and death in humans for millennia, and the poliovirus was not long ago hoped to be eradicated. But the recent detection of poliovirus in London sewage, and a case of poliomyelitis in New York, has highlighted the difficulty in eliminating poliovirus even in developed countries.

Read more: How cryo-EM revealed the secrets of enterovirus replication

MIMS Scientific Symposium on 11 November 2022

We invite you to join the MIMS Scientific Symposium on 11 November 2022 in Aula Biologica at Umeå University campus!

A half day public scientific symposium organized by MIMS on 11 November 2022 in Aula Biologica at Umeå University campus. The Symposium starts at 9:00 and ends at 12:45, including a coffee break. Participants are then invited to join a lunch and mingle session at Brashörnan at Umeå University campus.

Read more: MIMS Scientific Symposium on 11 November 2022

The effects of COVID-19 on the nervous system are being studied in a new project

Original news article in Swedish written by Ola Nilsson. English translation by Anne-Marie Fors Connolly.

For five years, a European research project will investigate the long-term neurological and psychiatric symptoms following infection with SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, something that is becoming a societal problem. Umeå University is one of ten universities in seven countries that are part of the project.
Overall, the Neurocov project is about understanding the interaction between the central and peripheral nervous system and the inflammatory response that the immune system triggers during COVID-19 infection.

Picture: Anne-Marie Fors Connolly. Credit: Hans Karlsson.

Read more: The effects of COVID-19 on the nervous system are being studied in a new project