CRISPR - Science's Breakthrough of the Year 2015!

The visitors of Science's website voted for the favorite from a short list of candidates in the People's Choice poll.

Read about the Runners-up stories, the CRISPR revolution topic page with links to featured publications and related article list.

Listen to the AAAS podcast in which the Science editors discuss the breakthrough and the other nine favorite stories of the year 2015.

Link to the journal Science of 17 December 2015 online

 Illustration of CRISPR-Cas9 by Linnea-Ljung Holmström

Emmanuelle Charpentier appointed as Vallee Visiting Professor 2016

"The Vallee Visiting Professorship (VVP) programme pairs outstanding scientists with premier biomedical research institutes worldwide in an informal arrangement that promotes intellectual exchanges and fosters new partnerships" (webpage of the Vallee Foundation).

The motivation on the Foundation's website: "With her recent ground-breaking findings in the field of RNA-mediated regulation based on the CRISPR-Cas9 system, Charpentier has laid the foundation for the development of a novel, highly versatile and specific genome editing technology that is revolutionizing life sciences research and could open up whole new opportunities in biomedical gene therapies."
More information about the Valee Foundation and ite Visting Professorship programme
Read more about the background of the Vallee Foundation (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)

Emmanuelle Charpentier appointed as Vallee Visiting Professor 2016

"The Vallee Visiting Professorship (VVP) programme pairs outstanding scientists with premier biomedical research institutes worldwide in an informal arrangement that promotes intellectual exchanges and fosters new partnerships" (webpage of the Vallee Foundation).

The motivation on the Foundation's website: "With her recent ground-breaking findings in the field of RNA-mediated regulation based on the CRISPR-Cas9 system, Charpentier has laid the foundation for the development of a novel, highly versatile and specific genome editing technology that is revolutionizing life sciences research and could open up whole new opportunities in biomedical gene therapies."
More information about the Valee Foundation and the Visting Professorship programme
Read more about the background of the Vallee Foundation (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)

Emmanuelle Charpentier awarded the Leibniz Prize 2016

[20151210] Emmanuelle Charpentier is one of the 10 scientists in German who were awarded the Leibniz Prize 2016 by the German Research Organisation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
She will receive the award on March 1st, 2016. "The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize Programme, was established in 1985, aims to improve the working conditions of outstanding researchers, expand their research opportunities, relieve them of administrative tasks, and help them employ particularly qualified early career researchers. A maximum of €2.5 million is provided per award". (webpage of the DFG)

Press release of the Max Planck Society (in German)

Andrea Puhar- Wallenberg Academy Fellow 2015!

[2015-12-03] Andrea Puhar, new group leader at MIMS, is one of the 29 Wallenberg Academy Fellows 2015. The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation announced in its press release this morning the new Fellows. Andrea Puhar is together with Nasim Sabouri, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, the second Fellow to be selected within the Faculty of Medicine at Umeå University, which will host 5 of the 29 new Fellows.
After Felipe Cava, who became Academy Fellow in 2012, Andrea Puhar is the second MIMS group leader who is part of the Foundations "program to support some of Sweden’s – and the world’s – most promising young researchers within humanities, medicine, natural sciences, social science and engineering sciences", as the Foundation says in its press release.

Press release of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

Webpage of Andrea Puhar's lab

Press release of Umeå Unversity (in Swedish)

2016 HFSP Nakasone Award to Emmanuelle Charpentier

[2015-11-19] The Human Frontier Science Program announced that the 2016 HFSP Nakasone Award will be presented to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna during the 16th HFSP Awardees Meeting which will be held in July 2016 at Biopolis, Singapore.

HFSP press release

Emmanuelle Charpentier will become Honorary Doctor of the Catholic University of Leuven

[2015-11-19] KU Leuven traditionally will confer a number of honorary doctorates in recognition of extraordinary academic, social, or cultural achievements. On November 19th, 2015, the KU Leuven published the names of the five new honorary doctors, among them Max-Planck-Director Emmanuelle Charpentier. She will receive the honor on the ceremony which will take place on February 10th as part of the University's Patron Saint’s Day celebrations.

Press release of KU Leuven

World Technology Award 2015 for Emmanuelle Charpentier.

World Technology Award 2015 for Emmanuelle Charpentier.

[2015-11-19/20] At the 2015 World Technology Summit & Awards Gala professor Emmanuelle Charpentier was awarded the World Technology Award in the field of biotechnology. The World Technology Network (WTN) conference took place in New York City on November 19^th and 20^th, 2015. Except for a presentation at the annual conference the winners also become members of the World Technology Network, which is connecting 1000 of the most innovative scientists and organizations. Among them are from Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE (in the field of energy) and another Max Planck Director Svante Pääbo (also in the field of biotechnology).

More information about the WTN Award

Exosome-like bacterial membrane vesicles containing RNA – “Bactexomes”

New findings reveal a hitherto unrecognised feature of bacterial membrane vesicles that are mimicking eukaryotic exosomes and contain RNA that can be delivered to host tissues and cells. Professor Sun Nyunt Wai and colleagues at MIMS and Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University, are reporting that RNA can be found in bacterial membrane vesicles. This discovery highlights the potential role of RNA-containing bacterial membrane vesicles to be involved in bacteria-host interactions.

The findings are published in the latest issue of Scientific Reports-Nature Publishing Group.

Authors are Annika Sjöström, Linda Sandblad, Bernt Eric Uhlin, Sun Nyunt Wai.

Original Publication:
Annika E. Sjöström, Linda Sandblad, Bernt Eric Uhlin & Sun Nyunt Wai (2015): Membrane vesicle-mediated release of bacterial RNA. Scientific Reports 5:15329; DOI: 10.1038/srep15329. Published Online 2015-10-20.

Webpage of Sun Nyunt Wai's research group

Picture: Cryo-electron tomogram of purified vesicles. Original published in Scientific Reports.

A molecular switch to stop inflammation

Our immune system is vital to us and can sometimes overreact causing chronic illnesses, such as for instance rheumatism and allergy. Now, researchers from Umeå University and University of Gothenburg have identified a molecular switch – MYSM1 – that can suppress such an overreaction and avoid inflammation. The study is published in the prestigious journal Immunity.

“The discovery of MYSM1 is a major milestone in our understanding of how our immune system works, and how its response could be controlled in order to prevent inflammatory diseases such as sepsis,” says Nelson O. Gekara, research leader at MIMS, Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden at Umeå University.

Read more: A molecular switch to stop inflammation