Emmanuelle Charpentier, former MIMS group leader, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020

7 September 2020, 11:45. The live sending started about the announcement of the winner(s) of the Nobel prize in Chemistry. At Umeå University, in Rotundan, about 20 people were holding their breath and watching at the screen as Prof. Pernilla Wittung Stafshede, the chairman of the committee - Prof. Claes Gustafsson, and Secretary General Göran K. Hansson at the Royal Swedish Acamdemy of Sciences opened the event.  When Secretary General Göran K. Hansson said "This year's prize is about re-writing the code of life", we knew it, everybody knew it, it is her! The official announcement  followed, saying her name clearly. Our warmest congratulations, Emmanuelle! 

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna "for the  development of a method for genome editing." 

Continue reading about Emmanuelle and CRISPR/Cas9 at Umeå University's webpage here, at The Nobel Prize webpage here or at EMBL's homepage here. 

Press photo by Hallbauer&Fioretti. 

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. 

How the Nordic EMBL Partnership is helping to fight COVID-19

Written by Annabel Darby

Whilst each of the Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes have different but complementary research focuses, the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has undoubtedly become a common theme for all four of our Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes (DANDRITE, FIMM, MIMS, NCMM). Alltogether, the four nodes are now working on over fourteen projects, with more in the pipeline. To read the summary of all ongoing projects, please visit: How the Nordic EMBL Partnership is helping to fight COVID-19 

New publication from MIMS group leader Björn O. Schröder in JBC on function of microbiota in obese mice

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.

Defects in the mucus layer have been observed in mice that were fed a diet that lacked dietary fibers, and it is thought that under these dietary conditions the gut microbiota start chewing on the mucus shield, which is also a carbohydrate-rich source. The study of Schröder et al., however, shows that mucus defects can occur even under a fiber-rich diet. By using a unique measurement system, they found that genetically obese mice, which over-eat this fiber-rich diet, have a defective colonic mucus layer with increased mucus penetrability and a strongly reduced “mucus growth rate”. Their data suggest that the gut microbiota community of obese mice may cause these colonic mucus defects, even in the presence of dietary fiber. Yet, it is so far unknown whether the gut microbiota may have similar effects in obese humans as well.

Read more: New publication from MIMS group leader Björn O. Schröder in JBC on function of microbiota in obese...

A high profile review article from MIMS group leader Barbara S. Sixt on host cell death modulation by the bacterial pathogen Chlamydia

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.

In a new review article published in FEMS Microbiology Reviews, MIMS group leader Barbara S. Sixt discusses the significance of this complex interplay and outstanding questions in the context of Chlamydia, a group of important pathogens causing for instance blinding eye infections, respiratory infections, and sexually transmitted diseases.

Read more: A high profile review article from MIMS group leader Barbara S. Sixt on host cell death modulation...