Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 to Emmanuelle Charpentier

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Created: Wednesday, 07 October 2020 13:54

UCMR Alumna Emmanuelle Charpentier

Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemisty 2020

Emmanuelle Charpentier, Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany, and Jennifer A. Doudna University of California, Berkeley, USA, receive the Nobel Prize in Chemisty for "developing a method of genome editing".

Emmanuelle Charpentier was one of the first recruited group leaders at the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden, MIMS, within the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) at Umeå University. During Emmanuelle Charpentier’s studies on Streptococcus pyogenes, she discovered a new molecule, tracrRNA, which together with CRISPR RNA and Cas9 play an important role in activation of the CRISPR-Cas system's defense mechanism in the pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes and other bacteria. She published the finding in 2011 in Nature. In the same year, she initiated a collaboration with Jennifer Doudna. Together, they showed how the bacterial protein Cas9 led by two guide RNAs (crRNA and tracrRNA) can identify targets in invading genes. They also showed how the system can be readily reprogrammed to be applied on any gene - which has proven to be a very versatile gene editing tool. This work was published 2012 in Science.

The CRISPR-Cas9 technology has in a short time been adopted by numerous researchers around the world in basic research and been applied in many different areas of science - including medicine and veterinary medicine, agriculture and biotechnology. Clinical trials of new cancer therapies and treatment of inherited diseases using this technology are underway.

Emmanuelle Charpentier was group leader at MIMS from 2009–2014 and visiting professor at UCMR from 2014–2017. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary doctorship. Since 2015, she has been mentor of UCMR “Excellence by Choice” postdoctoral program.

Emmanuelle Charpentier visited UCMR and MIMS in 2019 for a symposium to celebrate Bernt Eric Uhlin. In her speech she said about her time at UCMR and MIMS:
"When people ask me what attracted me in Umea, I reply that MIMS and UCMR could offer me what I was looking for: an innovative model for a new research institution, freedom of research, an understanding for risky projects and an understanding that more unconventional research projects need time and focus, respect for young students and scientists, a world-class scientific education for the junior scientists, an interactive and relaxed environment where scientific discussions are always a priority, and an enjoyable community of colleagues always ready to challenge novel scientific questions."

”We are all very happy about the fantastic news that Emmanuelle is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and send her our warmest congratulations.” says Bernt Eric Uhlin

”Congratulations! Emmanuelle! We are proud of you.” says Yaowen Wu, ”Thank you for your contribution to the excellent research environment of UCMR. Your outstanding achievement exemplifies how important the curiosity-driven research is. We will work together to continue strengthening world-class researches.”

Contact persons for more information:

Bernt Eric Uhlin, professor, founding director of UCMR and MIMS
Phone: 090-785 6731,  070-675 7344
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yaowen Wu, professor and director of UCMR since 2020
Phone: 090-786 5531, 070-206 7589
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Emmanuelle Charpentier's lab:
Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin
Campus Charité Mitte
Charitéplatz 1
10117 Berlin, Germany
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.emmanuelle-charpentier-lab.org

More information:
The announcement of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 (website of the Nobel Prize Foundation)

Press release by Umeå University

Watch the movie about Emmanuelle Charpentier by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation, 2019

 Picture. Hallbauer&Fioretti, Braunschweig

Make it or break it: how bacteria balance production and degradation of the ‘magic spot’ signaling alarmone

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Created: Monday, 11 May 2020 15:36

[2020-05-11] When stressed or starved, bacteria regulate their metabolism by producing signalling molecules called alarmones or ‘magic spots’. In the majority of bacteria, the magic spot compounds are both made and destroyed by a large, complex enzyme called Rel. The question of how Rel switches from making the alarmone to degrading it was finally resolved by an international team from Sweden – Vasili Hauryliuk (MIMS & UCMR) – and Belgium: Jelle Hendrix (Hasselt University) and Abel Garcia-Pino (Université Libre de Bruxelles). The results of this study were published in the high impact journal Nature Chemical Biology ("A nucleotide-switch mechanism mediates opposing catalytic activities of Rel enzymes", 11 May 2020).

The team have studied a Rel enzyme from a thermophilic bacterium Thermusthermophilus using a combination of structural (X-ray), biochemical (enzymology) and biophysical (single molecule FRET assays and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry). Since the T.thermophilus has an optimal growth temperature of about 65 °C, by solving the structures at room temperature the researchers could slow down the enzyme enough to ‘catch’ it in the act of synthesising or degrading the alarmone. It turned out that binding of the substrates to the active site region (domain) that is responsible for synthesis of the ‘magic spot’ allosterically inhibits the domain responsible for its degradation – and vice versa, binding of the substrates to the degradation domain inhibits the synthesis  domain. This simple but elegant mechanism ensures that bacteria avoid wasteful production and degradation of the magic spot signalling molecule. Biochemical characterisation of T.thermophilus was performed in Umeå by Dr. Hiraku Takada who is supported by a personal postdoctoral fellowship from the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR).

Read more: Make it or break it: how bacteria balance production and degradation of the ‘magic spot’ signaling...

Bacteria use small molecules to slam the brakes on their own growth

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Created: Wednesday, 29 April 2020 11:29

[2020-04-29] An international research team under the lead of scientists at the Umeå Center for Microbial Research (UCMR)  and The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) have uncovered a new kind of regulatory system of toxin and antitoxin proteins in bacteria that could be a defense system against viral attack. The bioinformatic identification of the proteins and their experimental validation are now published in the high impact journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US (PNAS, 28 April 2020)

When bacteria get stressed e.g. through antibiotic treatment or the lack of nutrients, they slow down their growth mechanism by small signaling molecules called Alarmones. The Atkinson and Hauryliuk labs at Umeå University have worked on the proteins that make and degrade alarmones for over a decade. They previously revealed the ubiquitous presence of small proteins that make alarmones, called small alarmone synthetases or SASs, encoded in bacterial genomes.

It was an unanswered question why bacteria carry SAS proteins in addition to their standard tool-set for alarmone synthesis and degradation. Now, Gemma C. Atkinson, Vasili Hauryliuk and their colleagues found an explanation. They showed that some SASs are components of so-called toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems.

Toxin-antitoxins genes are enigmatic components of microbial genomes. What toxins of TA systems all have in common is that they slam the brakes on growth and reproduction. This is counteracted by their antitoxins which are encoded by adjacent genes. Antitoxins can also work in different ways, either binding to the toxin to stop its action, or counteracting the effect of the toxin in an indirect way.

Read more: Bacteria use small molecules to slam the brakes on their own growth

Immune testing for Coronavirus created by researchers in Västerbotten

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Created: Tuesday, 21 April 2020 16:54

[2020-04-15] Researchers at Umeå University and Norrland University Hospital have developed an antibody test for the new Corona virus

People who were once infected with the coronavirus also become immune to re-infection. By using tests that measure whether the body's immune system has reacted to the coronavirus, it is possible to identify people who are resistant to the infection. This is of particular importance for staff working in healthcare or working with risk groups, but also to determine so-called flock immunity, when enough people are immune to the spread of the virus.

On initiative of University Lecturer Mattias Forsell and through collaboration between researchers at Umeå University and the University Hospital in Umeå, a test has been developed in a short time, which could show immunity to coronavirus.

Read more: Immune testing for Coronavirus created by researchers in Västerbotten

UCMR - a “jewel in the crown” of the Linnaeus Centres of Excellence in Sweden

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Created: Friday, 06 March 2020 09:26

The evaluation panel placed UCMR at the top in all categories

[2020-03-05] “Yes, do it again!”, was the short answer of Jürgen Mlynek, professor at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, on the question if the Linnaeus Programme has been successful. The evaluation of the 40 Centres of Excellence (CoE) within the Linnaeus Programme was presented and discussed at the Swedish Centre of Excellence Investments Conference last Wednesday in Stockholm. The programme was set up by Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) after a governmental decision in 2005 and provided 10-years funding to each CoE.

The international Expert Panel, chaired by Jürgen Mlynek, and co-chaired by Marja Makarow, professor and director at the Biocenter in Helsinki, Finland, focused on three areas: Research performance, societal relevance and international competitiveness. UCMR was in all three areas ranked as one of the top three centres, as highlighted by Mlynek and Makarow during the conference.

“Build on what was already strong”

In its report, the reviewers especially mentioned the strategy of the UCMR leadership, namely the “distinguished first Director of UCMR”, professor Bernt Eric Uhlin, who had the aim “to build on what was already strong and then hire the best people”. UCMR was early out to develop model systems to identify new control strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance. The evaluation panel was so impressed by the centre’s research performance that it judged it as “one of the jewels in the crown” of the Linnaeus Centres.

“We are indeed very pleased with the panel´s rating of UCMR as a Centre of Excellence with top qualities. This gives us strong encouragement for the continued development of a vivid and strong research environment among UCMR researchers”, commented Bernt Eric Uhlin

The panel also was asked to identify the top three universities that can serve as good examples for both hosting CoE´s but also for using the investment to further their international competitiveness. Here, Umeå University was ranked among the top three universities, based on criteria which addressed organization, management, knowledge transfer, collaboration and communication, and added value of the CoE.

Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) was awarded a Linnaeus Grant of 90 million SEK for the period of 2008-2018 from the Swedish Research Council. Initially, a consortium of 16 UCMR principle investigators stood behind an application that was strongly endorsed by the university’s vice-chancellor at that time, Göran Sandberg. UCMR was formed 2004-2005 as a bottom-up initiative with the vision to establish a world-leading and sustainable science environment promoting cutting-edge biomedical research in molecular infection medicine at Umeå University. It included a multi-disciplinary group of research faculty from both the faculty of medicine and the faculty for science and technology. A large number of additional researchers became affiliated to UCMR over the years and by 2019 the UCMR network consisted of more than 80 principle investigators and their research groups.

The UCMR research environment was the basis for establishment of MIMS

Thanks to the UCMR, many excellent scientists were internationally recruited to different departments with life science research in Umeå. And  the establishment of The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) was entirely based on UCMR and its aim towards a world-leading and sustainable science environment in molecular infection medicine. At the onset of MIMS was also the successful recruitment of Emmanuelle Charpentier who did her seminal work on the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 during her time at MIMS and UCMR.

Read more: UCMR - a “jewel in the crown” of the Linnaeus Centres of Excellence in Sweden