9th National Infection Biology/Swedish Microbiology Meeting, November 16-18 2021
Details
National Doctoral Programme in Infections and Antibiotics (NDPIA) and the Swedish Society for Microbiology (SFM) invite you to join the 9th National Infection Biology/Swedish Microbiology Meeting, taking place November 16-18, 2021.
The meeting will be a virtual meeting that aims to provide a broad vision on current state-of-the-art microbiology techniques and research in Sweden. Keynote speakers are Swedish researchers working within the sub-disciplines of bacteriology, virology, parasitology, host response, clinical infection biology, environmental microbiology, zoonotics, and new methods. To involve junior researchers, additional talks will be selected from the submitted poster abstracts. Poster presentations will be organized as digital poster walks that allow participants to present and discuss their work with other participants.
4th Annual CryoNET Symposium, October 18-19th 2021
Details
The 4th Annual CryoNET Symposium will through a panel of distinguished speakers highlight the latest discoveries facilitated by cryo-EM research and new directions that are emerging. The symposium will be fully accessible as an online meeting but we will provide viewing and presentation options in Umeå to the extent that the guidelines at the time allow (more info to follow). Students and postdocs are encouraged to apply to give talks. CryoNET is a network between the Cryo-EM facilities at University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Stockholm University and Umeå University and is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Registration is free but mandatory to get access to the platform. Deadline for registration is September 30th
UCMR Infection and Cancer Symposium, 24 August, online
Details
Infections due to certain viruses, bacteria, and parasites are strong risk factors for the development of specific cancers. Approximately 20% of cancers worldwide are attributed to infections. Conversely, a subset of pathogens preferentially lyse tumor cells, leading to tumor regression and improved anti-tumor immunity. In addition, the intestinal microbiota influences our response to anti-cancer therapy. The Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) Infection and Cancer Symposium aims to present and discuss these aspects of the complex relation between microbes and cancer.
International experts will present concepts on principles by which viruses and bacteria subvert the cellular micro-environment to cause cancer. Speakers will address a) mechanisms of malignant transformation by DNA and RNA viruses, b) mechanisms by which chronic and latent bacterial infections contribute to cancer initiation and progression, c) key issues related to pro-carcinogenic viruses/bacteria and immune defense, and d) how these processes can be prevented by prophylactic vaccination. Participants will have an opportunity to present their research during poster and, if selected, oral presentations and to meet other researchers within the field.
To see the speaker program and to register at no cost for the virtual symposium, go to www.ucmrinca2021.se.
Registration deadline: 20 August (without poster presentation).
1st Umeå Interdisciplinary Symposium on Hypoxic Biology - 25 May 8:45-16:45, online via Zoom
Details
The concentration of oxygen is one of the most important variables in many physiological and pathological processes. Do you care about oxygen levels in your experiments? Probably you should, and now you can at UHRF.
UHRF (Umeå Hypoxia Research Facility) is a new facility created to support research projects that require controlled oxygen conditions. We are co-financed by the Kempe Foundation and the Umeå Center for Microbial Research (UCMR) and you can find us at the Department of Molecular Biology.
To introduce UHRF, we have organized an exciting virtual symposium to highlight the fundamental role of hypoxia in microbial ecology and infection, fungal biology, plant science, cancer, neurobiology and virology research. This first interdisciplinary symposium on hypoxic biology in Umeå is a joint initiative of UHRF (https://www.umu.se/en/uhrf) and UCMR (https://www.ucmr.umu.se/).
The invited speakers include: Michael Jetten (Microbial ecology; Radboud University, The Netherlands), Emilio Bueno (Infection biology; University of Umeå, Sweden), Francesco Licausi (Plant biology; University of Oxford, UK), Emily Flashman(Plant biology; University of Oxford, UK) Jonathan Gilthorpe (Neurobiology; University of Umeå, Sweden), Randall Johnson (Tumor biology; Karolinska institutet, Sweden), Jane McKeating (Virology; University of Oxford, UK), Robert A. Cramer (Fungal biology; Geisel School of Medicine, USA), Constantin Urban (Fungal biology; University of Umeå, Sweden), Björn Schröder (Gut microbiome; University of Umeå, Sweden), Andreas Baumler (Gut microbiome; UCDAVIS, USA).
For questions contact: 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.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 to Emmanuelle Charpentier
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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.
