UCMR - Umeå Centre for Microbial Research

Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) is an interdisciplinary research centre established by a consortium of scientists representing medical & molecular microbiology, molecular & structural biology, chemistry & physics, and is devoted to top quality research and novel applications in the fields of microbial pathogenesis. In 2008 the consortium was awarded a 10-year grant from the Swedish Research Council (VR) for the UCMR Linnaeus Programme.

This programme was evaluated 2014 by an international expert panel that concluded, “UCMR is a leading centre nationally and internationally for chemical microbiology. This interdisciplinary centre brings together chemists, physicists and biologists. It is very well structured and has a remarkably successful training programme for young scientists. Their integration with the associated EMBL/MIMS structure has produced an impressive international centre.”

A large number of additional research groups are affiliated to UCMR and UCMR also includes the VR funded The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) – the Swedish node of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, the “Molecules for the Future” program funded by Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation and Vinnova (2009-2014) and the VR funded UCMR Research School (2008-2013).

Since 2014 UCMR/MIMS hosts a new VR funded National Doctoral programme in Infections and Antibiotics. The programme is provided for three years with a possible five-year extension and connects the research environments of infectious disease and infection biology throughout the country via the Swedish National Network for Infection biology. The aim of the programme is to strengthen the national recruitment base and quality for promoting research on infectious diseases and other risks to health. A particularly important objective is to strengthen domestic and international networking in the subject area. Both PhD students and postdocs are welcome to participate in the programme.

MIMS-UCMR researchers combine a strong molecular infection biology programme with chemical biology to clarify molecular mechanisms of microbial infections and aim to develop novel sustainable strategies to combat the increasing problems with microbial resistance to current antibiotics.

UCMR scientists cover all kinds of research areas on microbial virulence strategies: Bacterial and viral cell attachment, bacterial protein delivery, proliferation of intracellular bacteria, extracellular parasites, fungi infection, chemical biology of virulence factors and drug development.