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MIMS/UCMR Mini-Symposium, 29 May 2018

UCMR DAY 2018Welcome to the 3rd MIMS/UCMR-Mini-Symposium of the year!

29 May 2018, 9:00 - 11:50

Bergasalen, Umeå University Hospital (NUS), South Entrance
In the first session presentations by the Oliver Billker, appointed new Director of MIMS from 1st October, Barbara Sixt, new MIMS Group Leader,  Gemma Atkinson and Linda Sandblad, recipients of UCMR Gender Policy Support. In the second session five Postdoctoral Fellows from the MIMS/UCMR Postdoctoral Programme will present: Christian Pett, Hiraku Takada, Ravendra Nagampalli, Dharmedra Kumar Soni, Rajender Kumar.

Hosts: Bernt Eric Uhlin, Maria Fällman, Elisabeth Sauer-Eriksson, Åke Forsberg

Please register here latest on 27 May:
https://kbc-forms.upsc.se/forms/75-ucmr-mims-minisymposium.html

Contact for questions: Eva-Maria Diehl, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

NOTE the programme is updated (Christian Pett's presentation has been cancelled)

pdfProgramme for download

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MIMS UCMR Mini-Symposium 30 Sept 2013

Place: Betula, building 6M

Welcome to an interesting afternoon! Meet new post-docs and group leaders
The post-docs recruited through the first UCMR_MIMS call and the new MIMS group leaders will present their research. Bernt Eric Uhlin director of MIMS and UCMR will give an update over the newest developments at MIMS.


Read more: MIMS UCMR Mini-Symposium 30 Sept 2013

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

Picture Rel[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...

Inauguration of UCEM

 

Inauguration Umeå Core Facility Electron Microscopy (UCEM) Print E-mail


Welcome to the inauguration of UCEM!  The Umeå Core Facility Electron Microscopy will celebrate the inauguration of a new high resolution field emission SEM equipped with a cryo-stage. The new Field Emission SEM instrument has a unique lens and detector design that opens up new avenues for research in life science, plant biotechnology/wood science, and material science.

23 May 2013, 12:00 - 17:00
Stora hörsalen KB3B1, KBC
playMore information and registration

Important toxin helps the cholera bacterium to survive

 

Sun_Nyunt_Wai_forskargrupp.png
Picture: Sun Nyunt Wai (leading PI), Aftab Nadeem (first author) and Karina Persson (leading PI). Credit: Mattias Petterson.

Infection researchers at Umeå University have discovered that the cholera bacterium can produce a toxin that is considered particularly important for the bacterium in its natural environments and for survival in competition with other organisms. Knowledge about this toxin means that there is another tool that can be used in the fight against cholera and similar diseases. The study is published in PNAS.

Read more: Important toxin helps the cholera bacterium to survive