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

Congratulations to Poul Nissen, recipient of the 2017 Novo Nordisk Prize!

Poul Nissen, director of DANDRITE and professor at Aarhus University, is receiving the 2017 Novo Nordisk Prize for his "pioneering studies of the structure and function of ion pumps".

More information:

Webpage of the Novo Nordisk Foundation

Picture: Poul Nissen at the 5th Network Meeting of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, 26 - 28 August 2014 in Umeå (Eva-Maria Diehl)

Jubilee symposium to celebrate Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation's 100 years anniversary

Infection Research to Meet current and Future Challenges

To celebrate 100 years in support of excellent Swedish research and education, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation arranges, in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Swedish universities, a series of symposia in areas where the Foundation has provided substantial financial support throughout the years.

The six symposia have different focus and are organised in Lund (4 April), Umeå (19 June), Linköping (13 September), Stockholm (15 September), Uppsala (21 September), and Gothenburg (28 September).

The symposium in Umeå "Infection Research to Meet current and Future Challenges" will take place on:

19 June 2017, 09.30 - 18.30

Venue: Aula Nordica, Umeå (->map)

Programme

Read more on the website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Tick-borne infections - new findings

[2017-01-23] Before infecting humans, tick-borne bacteria or viruses first have to get past a tick’s defences and colonize it. How they can manage this, is not well understood. To investigate this smart mechanism, researchers from Umea University, and Yale University, studied a model of the second-most-common tick-borne infection in the United States, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, which can cause headaches, muscle pain, and even death.

Researchers Felipe Cava and Akhilesh K Yadav from The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden at the Department of Molecular Biology in Umea University, in collaboration with researchers from Yale University have found that in ticks, the bacterium A. phagocytophilum, before infecting the humans causes the infection, first triggers the expression of a particular protein in the ticks. This protein then alters molecules in the tick’s gut, allowing the bacteria to enter and colonize the gut microbes.

Read more: Tick-borne infections - new findings

Swedish Research Council's Web Magazine Curie is highlighting MIMS

[161214] The Swedish Research Council's web magazine Curie, highlighted this week MIMS and the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine. In the first article Bernt Eric Uhlin is informing about the recruitment and evaluation process of young group leaders at MIMS and within the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine.
The second article is about Felipe Cava and Nelson Gekara, young group leaders at MIMS.

http://www.tidningencurie.se/nyheter/2016/12/13/klimatet-som-framjar-framgangsrika-forskare/
 
http://www.tidningencurie.se/nyheter/2016/12/14/bra-villkor-lockar-dem-till-umea/

Consolidator Grant to Nelson Gekara

Nelson Gekara is one of the twenty researchers in Sweden who will receive a Consolidator Grant 2016 from the Swedish Research Council.

His project "The roll of DNA damage and signal proteins on the innate immune system” will be supported with 9 million SEK within the next 6 years.

Read more: Consolidator Grant to Nelson Gekara

Maria Fällman and Johan Normark receive JPIAMR grants

[16-11-26] JPIAMR, the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance, published its decision on November 18th, at the European Antibiotic Awareness Day. Two of the nine Swedish praticipants who received a grant are from MIMS: Maria Fällman, group leader at MIMS, and Johan Normark, MIMS Clinical Research Fellow. Congratulations!

Maria Fällman and Johan Normark are part of the research consortium "A multi-scale approach to understanding the mechanisms of mobile DNA driven antimicrobial resistance transmission", with participating researcher from Canada, Germany (EMBL), Spain, France, and Switzerland. The MIMS researchers will receive together 6.6 million SEK for three years from the Swedish Research Council.

Sweden is one of the 22 member states participating in the transnational Jont Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance. The Swedish Research Council i managing the overall coordination and dissemination of this endeavour.

Read more about the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Webpage of the Swedish Research Council about the JPIAMR grants decision: Tranmission Dynamics

Regulated release of membrane vesicles from the human pathogen Group A streptococcus

[2016-11-14] Release of vesicles from the outer membrane are known to play an important role in the biology of Gram-negative bacteria. They are relevant for pathogenesis and interaction of the bacteria with their environment. Only recently was it observed that membrane vesicles (MVs) also can be released from Gram-positive bacteria which lack an outer membrane and have a thick cell wall. The composition and mechanisms which govern the MV formation in Gram-positive bacteria was still unclear. Now, a new study, published in mBio, a high impact journal of the American Society for Microbiology, shows new findings on the composition and the regulation of MVs production in the Gram-positive, human pathogen, Group A streptococcus.

Read more: Regulated release of membrane vesicles from the human pathogen Group A streptococcus

Call for UCMR Linnaeus Program Gender Policy Support Grants.

The UCMR Linnaeus program actively attempts to reinforce and increase the role of women in science. The objective of this policy is to achieve a gender equal distribution within each of the principal investigator categories, i.e. for research professors/teachers with tenure and junior research group leaders.

Female scientists holding positions as assistant/associated professor (forskarassistent/universitetslektor) or group leader/researcher are invited to apply for research grants of 750 kSEK/year during two years, 2017-2018. Entitled to apply are female group leaders associated with UCMR (http://www.ucmr.umu.se/ ) at Umeå University and who have established themselves as independent principal investigators with research of relevance for infection biology. In addition to the applicants´ research accomplishments the situation with respect to funding and obligations in e.g. teaching will be considered in the selection. Priority will be given to applicants who have not earlier been recipients of grants from the UCMR Linnaeus Gender Support program.

Read more: Call for UCMR Linnaeus Program Gender Policy Support Grants.