1st Umeå Interdisciplinary Symposium on Hypoxic Biology - 25 May 2021

The concentration of oxygen is one of the most important variables in many physiological and pathological processes. Do you care about oxygen levels in your experiments? Probably you should, and now you can at UHRF.

UHRF (Umeå Hypoxia Research Facility) is a new facility created to support research projects that require controlled oxygen conditions. We are co-financed by the Kempe Foundation and the Umeå Center for Microbial Research (UCMR) and you can find us at the Department of Molecular Biology.

1st Umeå Interdisciplinary Symposium on Hypoxic Biology - 25 May 8:45-16:45, online via Zoom

To introduce UHRF, we have organized an exciting virtual symposium to highlight the fundamental role of hypoxia in microbial ecology and infection, fungal biology, plant science, cancer, neurobiology and virology research. This first interdisciplinary symposium on hypoxic biology in Umeå is a joint initiative of UHRF (https://www.umu.se/en/uhrf) and UCMR (https://www.ucmr.umu.se/).

Read more to find out about the full program and registration.

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Malaria researchers at MIMS, Ellen Bushell and Oliver Billker, reflect on World Malaria Day (25 April)

Written by Nóra Lehotai, MIMS

During the World Health Assembly in 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States established 25th April as World Malaria Day. Fourteen years have passed, and malaria is still a global threat, claiming over 400, 000 lives every year, mostly killing children under 5 according to the WHO.

Malaria, an infectious disease, is caused by the unicellular protozoan Plasmodium parasites. These parasites infect the Anopheles mosquitos which become carriers of the parasites and transmit them to humans when the infected female Anopheles mosquito bites us. The parasites are injected from the mosquito’s salivary glands to the blood in the form of sporozoites, which travel to the liver (liver stage) where they multiply and transform into merozoites. The merozoite form invades our red blood cells (RBCs; blood stage), grows, and transforms into trophozoite, schizont and finally, into gametocyte form, which induces the malaria symptoms. The typical incubation period, from the bite until the first symptoms, is 11 days.

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MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Sarah Lundgren

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Sarah Lundgren. Photo credits: Sarah Lundgren.

Sarah Lundgren joined MIMS in November 2020. She felt like coming home after living in the UK, Australia and Japan and nowadays she enjoys life in Umeå with her partner, Sam, and many more four legged friends. Enjoy the interview with Sarah!

Can you tell us about your role at MIMS, what are you working on now? 

My main responsibility in the Oliver Billker’s lab here at MIMS, is the management of our insectary. We rear mosquito colonies for our malaria research, and I make sure that our scientists have access to mosquitoes for their various experiments. Besides running the insectary, I am also responsible for coordinating the logistics, and making sure that everything runs smoothly.

Read more: MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Sarah Lundgren

MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Barbara Forró

Text written by Nóra Lehotai and Barbara Forró. Photo credits: Csaba Guti.

I had a chat with Barbara, who is a postdoctoral fellow in Maria Fällman’s group. After living in Hungary and Canada, she moved to Umeå in August 2020. She shares her home with her husband and “never enough” number of plants.

Can you tell us about your role at MIMS; what are you working on now?

My main project is about shedding light on the molecular mechanism of Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium invasion and persistence. I am being fortunate to analyze a huge bulk of RNA seq data from an in vivo mice experiment, that would drive us closer to understand the mechanisms of the bacterial persistence in the host and, as always in science, would raise more fascinating questions regarding the topic. Outside of the main project, I am taking the time to learn more about mechanisms of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis invasion and persistence in the host.

Read more: MIMS Spotlight Series: Meet Barbara Forró

Prestigious postdoctoral fellowship for structural biology and infection research in Umeå

Text written by Himanshu Sharma and Nóra Lehotai. Photo: Himanshu Sharma by the Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope at the Umeå Centre for Electron Microscopy (UCEM). Credit: Kai Ehrenbolger. 

Himanshu Sharma, a postdoctoral researcher in Jonas Barandun’s lab at MIMS and the Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, got awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowship, giving him the opportunity to carry out the proposed research project with the financial support of 191 000 € over two years.

“I am exhilarated to have received this research funding. This fellowship gives me an opportunity to investigate the intriguing infection mechanism of microsporidia through cutting-edge methods in structural biology. Microsporidia are a class of obligate parasites that employ unique methods to infect almost all organisms, including bees, fish, farmed animals and humans. Apart from being an enormous environmental and healthcare challenge, these organisms also exhibit a range of evolutionarily distinctive cellular processes. To understand these interesting but understudied pathogens, I am going to combine my existing knowledge in RNA biology with cryo-EM to understand the critical events in the microsporidia lifecycle. Through these advancements, I aim to develop an understanding of potential drug targets to curb the growing menace of microsporidia infections.”- he commented. 

Read more: Prestigious postdoctoral fellowship for structural biology and infection research in Umeå