New Speaker announced for the Nordic EMBL Partnership

Professor Bernt Eric Uhlin, Director of MIMS, will replace Professor Kjetil Taskén, Director of NCMM. The Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine is delighted to announce that Professor Bernt Eric Uhlin has been named as the Partnership’s new Speaker.

[20170919] Professor Uhlin is the Director of Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), and is also a professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University. He was elected by the Partnership’s Steering Committee at the 8th annual Nordic EMBL Partnership meeting, hosted by the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) in Helsinki in September 2017.

Read more: New Speaker announced for the Nordic EMBL Partnership

Felipe Cava honoured at the 7th Congress of European Microbiologists

[2017-07-16] Congratulations to MIMS- Group leader Felipe Cava! The Jaime Ferran Awardee and best young microbiologist in Spain 2017, was honoured at the 7th Congress of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) in Valencia. He closed the biggest conference of the European Microbiologists with his lecture entitled "The MUREINome: exploring cell wall diversity and plasticity in kingdom Bacteria".

The Jaime Ferran Award, is offered from the Spanish Society for Microbiology (Sociedad Española de Microbiología, SEM) to recognize the outstanding achievements of a young microbiology researcher. On the FEMS 2017, the award was presented by Antonio Ventosa, chairperson of the organizing committee, during the Closing Ceremony on Thursday, July 13 in Valencia.

(pictures FEMS 2017)

Link to the FEMS 2017 Congress of European Microbiologists, July 9-13, Valencia, Spain
Spotlight on… SEM Jaime Ferran Awardee Felipe Cava (Webpage of FEMS)
Webpage of the Cava lab
More about the Jaime Ferran Award 2017

Internationally renowned researchers become 2017 honorary doctors at the Faculty of Medicine

Professor Emmanuelle Charpentier, director at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, and Dr. Paul Jenkins, Head of Statistics at Bassett Healthcare in New York, will receive 2017 honorary doctorates at the Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Paul Jenkins, both of whom have had a long term relationship with Umeå University, will be promoted to medical honorary doctors at Umeå University's annual celebration on 21 October.

Read more: Internationally renowned researchers become 2017 honorary doctors at the Faculty of Medicine

Felipe Cava is SEM Jaime Ferran Awardee - best young microbiologist in Spain 2017

[2017-05-02] The Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM) awarded MIMS group leader Felipe Cava as best microbiologist in Spain for 2017. The Jaime Ferran Prize is the most prestigious recognition to a microbiologist in Spain, and is awarded to young scientists for their outstanding achievements in microbiology. The Federal European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) highlighted the awardee in a Spotlight interview on the 28 April 2017.

The prize is called after the Spanish physician Jaime Ferran who developed the first cholera vaccine in 1885. It consists of € 2000 and Felipe Cava is also invited to talk at the closing ceremony of the FEM congress in July this year.

Link to the FEMS spotlight about Felipe Cava (17-04-28)

Link to the FEMS 2017 Congress of European Microbiologists, July 9-13, Valencia, Spain

Link to the webpage of the Cava lab at MIMS

Link to the webpage of the Cava lab's own website

(picture: Elin Berge)

Felipe Cava is SEM Jaime Ferran Awardee and best young microbiologist in Spain 2017

[2017-05-02] The Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM) awarded MIMS group leader Felipe Cava as best microbiologist in Spain for 2017. The Jaime Ferran Prize is the most prestigious recognition to a microbiologist in Spain, and is awarded to young scientists for their outstanding achievements in microbiology. The Federal European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) highlighted the awardee in a Spotlight interview on the 28 April 2017.

The prize is called after the Spanish physician Jaime Ferran who developed the first cholera vaccine in 1885. It consists of € 2000 and Felipe Cava is also invited to talk at the closing ceremony of the FEM congress in July this year.

Link to the FEMS spotlight about Felipe Cava (17-04-28)

Link to the FEMS 2017 Congress of European Microbiologists, July 9-13, Valencia, Spain

Link to the webpage of the Cava lab at MIMS

Link to the webpage of the Cava lab's own website

(picture: Elin Berge)

Emmanuelle Charpentier was honoured at the Japan Prize Ceremony

[2017-04-20] More than 1000 people, including the Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, attended the formal Japan Prize Ceremony, on Thursday 19 April in Tokyo.

Emmanuelle Charpentier received the Japan Prize 2017 in the life sciences together with Jennifer Dounda, University of California at Berkeley. Adi Shamir, Weizmann Institute Israel, was awarded with the Japan Prize for his research in cryptography and his contributions to cybersecurity.

The same day the Japan Prize Foundation published videos which highlighted the laureates:

movie by the Japan Prize Foundation (activate the subtitle function in the down right corner)

More information about the Japan Prize and the announcement of the Laureates in February 2017

Novo Nordisk Foundation Awards for professors at two Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes

[2017-03-17] Two leading scientists from two Nordic EMBL Partnership sites, DANDRITE (Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience) and MIMS, have both been awarded prestigious prizes and will receive the prizes on a prize ceremony at the Novo Nordisk Headquater in Copenhagen, Denmark, today.

MIMS congratulates two fellow Nordic EMBL Partnership members, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Poul Nissen, who have both been awarded prizes from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. 

Read more: Novo Nordisk Foundation Awards for professors at two Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes

New method reveals how proteins stabilize the cell surface

[2017-02-22] To withstand external mechanical stress and handle trafficking of various substances, a cell needs to adjust its surrounding membrane. This is done through small indentations on the cell surface called caveolae. In order to stabilize its membrane, cells use the protein EHD2, which can be turned on and off to alternate between an inactive closed form and an active open form. The discovery, made by Umeå University researchers and colleagues, was recently published in the journal PNAS.

Read the whole press release from the Faculty of Medicine

Read the article in PNAS

Richards Lundmark’s research at MIMS

Text by: Daniel Harju, Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University

The 33rd Japan Prize awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier

[2017-02-03] The Japan Prize Foundation announced at its press conference on 1st of February 2017 that the 33rd Japan Prize is awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. The Japan Prize honors annually scientists and engineers from around the world who have made significant contributions to the advancement of science and tehnology, thereby furthering the cause of peace and prosperity of mankind.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna are awarded as Trailblazers in Life Science for there work which "deciphered CRISPR-Cas9, creating a revolutionary tool for editing DNA".

At the prize ceremony, on 3rd February 2017 also Adi Shamir, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, was honored in the field of "Electronics, Information and communication" for his "contribution to information security through pioneering research on cryptography".

More information:

Website of The Japan Prize Foundation

Watch the 2017 Japan Prize Press Conference:

Emmanuelle Charpentier - awardee of the 2017 Novozymes Prize

[2017-02-13] Emmanuelle Charpentier, is one of the two awardees of the 2017 Novozymes Prize, which is awarded by the Novozymes Prize Committee on behalf of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

MIMS group leader and visiting professor at Umeå University Emmanuelle Charpentier has been awarded together with Virginijus Siksnys for their "pioneering research activities, which have been key in developing the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic tool" (..).

More information:

Webpage of the Novo Nordisk Foundation

Picture: Hallbauer & Fioretti