Emmanuelle Charpentier was honoured at the Japan Prize Ceremony

[2017-04-20] More than 1000 people, including the Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, attended the formal Japan Prize Ceremony, on Thursday 19 April in Tokyo.

Emmanuelle Charpentier received the Japan Prize 2017 in the life sciences together with Jennifer Dounda, University of California at Berkeley. Adi Shamir, Weizmann Institute Israel, was awarded with the Japan Prize for his research in cryptography and his contributions to cybersecurity.

The same day the Japan Prize Foundation published videos which highlighted the laureates:

movie by the Japan Prize Foundation (activate the subtitle function in the down right corner)

More information about the Japan Prize and the announcement of the Laureates in February 2017

Novo Nordisk Foundation Awards for professors at two Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes

[2017-03-17] Two leading scientists from two Nordic EMBL Partnership sites, DANDRITE (Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience) and MIMS, have both been awarded prestigious prizes and will receive the prizes on a prize ceremony at the Novo Nordisk Headquater in Copenhagen, Denmark, today.

MIMS congratulates two fellow Nordic EMBL Partnership members, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Poul Nissen, who have both been awarded prizes from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. 

Read more: Novo Nordisk Foundation Awards for professors at two Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes

New method reveals how proteins stabilize the cell surface

[2017-02-22] To withstand external mechanical stress and handle trafficking of various substances, a cell needs to adjust its surrounding membrane. This is done through small indentations on the cell surface called caveolae. In order to stabilize its membrane, cells use the protein EHD2, which can be turned on and off to alternate between an inactive closed form and an active open form. The discovery, made by Umeå University researchers and colleagues, was recently published in the journal PNAS.

Read the whole press release from the Faculty of Medicine

Read the article in PNAS

Richards Lundmark’s research at MIMS

Text by: Daniel Harju, Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University

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