SEK 30 million grant for malaria parasite research at MIMS

[20181004] The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation grants Oliver Billker, professor and newly appointed director of  The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University, SEK 30 million to study gene functions of malaria parasites.

"I am very grateful for this support. It is through this kind of generous and long-term funding that we will be able to ask big questions and to bring in the new technologies that we need to answer them," says Oliver Billker, who has recently been recruited as a professor of biotechnology at Umeå University.

"Our research wants to better understand the biology of malaria parasite in order to find new strategies against malaria, a disease that causes enormous suffering in the world, especially in countries with fewer financial resources and poor healthcare," says Oliver Billker.

Read more: SEK 30 million grant for malaria parasite research at MIMS

Nitrite’s got to be cruel to be kind

The Cholera pathogen uses a smart metabolic switch to control population expansion and survival for an optimal adaptation to the intestine’s low-oxygen environments.

The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae has puzzled the scientists since its discovery 150 years ago. Experts who studied the bacterium couldn’t understand that the bacterium was not able to grow under anaerobic conditions despite it was equipped with an active metabolic machinery which should enable the organism to respire nitrate instead of oxygen, conditions that typically exist in the gastrointestinal tract. The common opinion was that the bacteria accumulates the intermediate product nitrite which inhibits further growth.

The research group of Felipe Cava at The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden studied this bacteria now under low-oxygen and different pH-conditions. Together with their colleagues in Boston, USA, the scientists at Umeå University discovered an elegant pH-dependent metabolic mechanism which permits the pathogen to switch to a resting mode with preserved viability. A smart strategy that provides competitive advantage against commensal bacteria to better colonize and infect the intestine. The group published the results now in the latest issue of Nature Microbiology 1 October 2018.

Read more: Nitrite’s got to be cruel to be kind

New perspectives on Nordic research: Nordic EMBL Partnership Meeting 2018

NCMM hosted the 9th annual Nordic EMBL Partnership Meeting in the hills above Oslo. The annual Partnership meetings offer researchers an opportunity to come together for a programme of scientific discussion and networking.

This year’s Nordic EMBL Partnership meeting, the 9^th annual meeting in the Partnership’s history, saw over 150 participants gather in Oslo.

Visitors from DANDRITE (Danish Institute for Translational Neuroscience), MIMS (Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden), FIMM (Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland) and the EMBL joined NCMM’s group leaders and researchers at the Soria Moria Hotel. The setting in the hills above Oslo offered participants some fantastic views of the city and the Oslofjord, making for a stimulating meeting location.

Read the article on the website of The Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine

Fernström Prize for research on bacterial cell walls

2018 Fernström Prize awardee at Umeå University becomes Felipe Cava. His research group studies how bacteria can adapt the construction of the cell wall to different host environments, knowledge that may be important for the development of new antibiotics.

Felipe Cava will be honored for the Fernstrom Prize at Umeå University's annual festival on Saturday, October 20th. The actual award ceremony takes place during Research Day at Lund University in November.

Read more: Fernström Prize for research on bacterial cell walls

A new toxin in Cholera bacteria discovered by scientists in Umeå

[2018-06-21] Scientists affiliated with MIMS and UCMR describe their findings about a new toxin and its secretion mechanism from the major bacterial pathogen Vibrio cholerae in a recent publication in the journal Communications Biology (7 June 2018).

The bacterium Vibrio cholerae was discovered more than 150 years ago but remains as one of the main causes of bacterial infectious disease globally, especially in low-income nations where it occurs endemic, and outbreaks of cholera disease can lead to major epidemics.

In addition to causing cholera disease characterized by very severe watery diarrhea, different variants of V. cholerae can cause, for example, wound infections and infections in the ear canal (ear inflammation). If the infection is reaching the bloodstream, it can lead to blood poisoning. Such variants of Vibrio bacteria are common in brackish water, but can be found both in freshwater and saltwater and are also present in such environments in our country.

Scientists from Umeå University have now discovered and characterised the structure and function of a so far unknown Vibrio toxin. A team led by Professor Sun Nyunt Wai at Department of Molecular Biology and MIMS used the worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a predatory host for the bacteria and identified by molecular genetic analysis the V. cholerae genes required for production and release of the new protein toxin, now called MakA.

Read more: A new toxin in Cholera bacteria discovered by scientists in Umeå