The annual Nordic EMBL Partnership meeting 2020: Connecting with colleagues to increase future interactions
From the Nordic EMBL Partnership's point of view: MIMS hosts the 10th annual Nordic EMBL Partnership meeting from Umeå, Sweden
Written by Annabel Darby, Communications officer for the Nordic EMBL Partnership
The Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine held its 10th annual conference in slightly different circumstances to previous years. MIMS (Laboratory for Infection Medicine Sweden) hosted the conference from their home in Umeå. With travel restrictions in place due to COVID-19, the conference moved online for the first time. The ease of being able to present and participate online opened up access for both speakers and attendees, with a record 344 people registering for the event; the highest number in the meeting’s 10-year history. Read the full article here.
From EMBL's point of view: The Nordic EMBL Partnership: supporting national research
Written by Dorota Badowska, EMBL Press Officer
The partnership between EMBL and four Nordic research institutions aims to stimulate scientific exchange and inspire scientific collaborations. This year’s conference of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine included many talks by EMBL researchers and a presentation by EMBL’s Director General. Read the full article here.
The mammalian gut is home to a tremendous number of microorganisms, termed the gut microbiota. This peaceful community helps to digest complex carbohydrate, such as dietary fibers, and provides the body with important nutrients and other molecules. At the same time, however, this bacterial community may become a danger to the body when it is not safely contained in the intestine. Thus, to separate the gut bacterial community from the body, the intestinal surface is covered with a mucus layer, which as a physical barrier that keeps the gut bacteria at a good distance from the gut wall.
A significant number of bacterial pathogens has the capacity to invade human cells and to exploit the interior of the host cell as growth niche. The bacteria reprogram host cellular functions to promote their growth and to suppress the intrinsic defense systems of the host cell. Pathogens have evolved to protect or compromise the viability of the host cell as their survival and life cycle within the cell depends on it. This interplay between host and microbe can be very complex. For instance, after a phase of growth, intracellular bacteria may actively induce cell death to promote their release and spread. While in other cases, the host cell may activate molecular suicide programs as defense response to restrict pathogen growth by removing the growth niche.
For his innovative research project on the infection biology of microsporidia, Jonas Barandun has been awarded a prestigious Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC), funded with 1.5 million euros over five years. Dr. Barandun joined Umeå University from The Rockefeller, University, New York, in January 2019 to start a research group at the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden.
