UCMR researchers receive major NIH grant to study tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance

[2018-09-10] Fredrik Almqvist, Professor in organic chemistry at Umeå University, and his American research colleague Christina Stallings, and UCMR visiting researcher receive SEK 24 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research on combating infections of the most common type of tuberculosis bacteria.

– It's absolutely amazing! A grant of this size really makes a difference and gives us the endurance that is needed to follow up on our previous research results. An added value is of course that it connects our respective universities in a valuable way, and perhaps opens new paths for other researchers to build similar relationships, says Fredrik Almqvist, Professor at the Department of chemistry at Umeå University

Read more: UCMR researchers receive major NIH grant to study tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance

UCMR is recruiting a Research Coordinator

UCMR is recruiting a Research Coordinator. Deadline of application April 13th, 2021.
For more information and application please visit the website.
Swedish: https://www.umu.se/jobba-hos-oss/lediga-jobb/forskningssamordnare_383570/
English: https://www.umu.se/en/work-with-us/open-positions/research-coordinator_383570/

UCMR Day 2022 - UPDATE

Welcome to the 13^th UCMR Day, January 20^th 2022!

We cordially invite you to join us for the UCMR Day 2022, which will be held as an online conference!

Due to increased spread of infection and increased strain on the healthcare system, the Swedish Government has introduced a new action plan of COVID measures that took effect on 8 December. As a response to this, the Vice-Chancellor adopted a revised decision for Umeå University that implies, among other things, that larger meetings and events should be implemented online or be postponed.

In order to comply with the rules, while still having the possibility to meet and interact within the UCMR community in a way that guarantees the safety of all participants, we decided to make the UCMR Day an online event only!

Scientists and staff members within UCMR (Umeå Centre for Microbial Research) research groups, collaboration partners and researchers with an interest in microbial research and/or infection biology are invited to a day of inspiring research presentations and an excellent opportunity for networking and initiation of multidisciplinary collaborations.

This one-day conference includes two international keynotes, scientific presentations by UCMR affiliated researchers, selected abstract talks and poster elevator pitches as well as physical poster presentations. The program includes several possibilities for UCMR scientists to interact digitally and network with each other.

More information and registration on the conference webpage www.ucmrday2022.se. Deadline for submission of abstracts is Dec 12^th!

Keynote speakers:

Kayla King, Department of Zoology, Oxford University                              Päivi Ojala, Department of Pathology, University of Helsinki

UCMR DAY 2020 with record number of participants

Yaowen Wu and Teresa Frisan are new UCMR Director and Deputy Director, respectively, and Vice Directors Fredrik Almqvist and Constantin Urban complete the new leadership team. UCMR Ambassadors 2020: Anita Kiss, Karim Rafie and Nunya Chotiwan. Agrisera Poster Prize to Anita Kiss.

With more than 180 participants, the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research held its annual symposium, the UCMR DAY 2020, for the eleventh time on January 23^rd. The event, at Aula Nordica this year, included new activities to enhance the interaction and networking among the scientists of this Centre of Excellence which has been supported since 2008 by a Linnaeus Grant from the Swedish Research Council (VR).

Read more: UCMR DAY 2020 with record number of participants

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

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