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Two Nordic foundations support a network in Cryo-EM, a Nobel Prize–winning technology

IMG 6721 EMD cropped[2018-01-23] A new Swedish-Danish research alliance wants to advance understanding of how biological molecules look and behave. With support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, scientists at four universities in Sweden and Denmark will join forces to create a Nordic network in cryoelectron microscopy, whose developers were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The CryoNet network will bring together experts in cryoelectron microscopy at universities in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Umeå. A Swedish- Danish partnership between the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation will fund the network. Each foundation has awarded a grant of €1 million over 4 years for CryoNet.

Read more: Two Nordic foundations support a network in Cryo-EM, a Nobel Prize–winning technology

Snooker in the living cell - Multi-directional activity control of cellular processes

ChemooptpgeneticsThe spatial and temporal dynamics of proteins or organelles plays a crucial role in controlling various cellular processes and in development of diseases. Yet, acute control of activity at distinct locations within a cell cannot be achieved. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists from Umeå University (Sweden)   and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (Germany) present a new chemo-optogenetic method that enables tunable, reversible, and rapid control of activity at multiple subcellular compartments within a living cell.

Read more: Snooker in the living cell - Multi-directional activity control of cellular processes

NSCMID 2015 - Infection and Antibiotics

NSCMID 2015 MIMS header

32nd Annual Meeting of the Nordic Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
3-6 September 2015, Väven, Umeå
The registration is closed.


Conference webpage

Nobel Laureate Jacques Dubochet visits Umeå University!

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New compounds discovered as possible candidates for new antimicrobial drugs against Listeria infection

Hep cells grown without and with 2 pyridones

 

Scientists at Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR) have discovered chemical compounds which are able to attenuate the virulence of the bacterial human pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Their findings are published today in the high impact journal Cell Chemical Biology.

The dramatic increase of antibiotic resistance makes new antimicrobial strategies necessary. The researchers at Umeå University in Sweden are studying an alternative approach, to inhibit the disease capacity (virulence) of bacteria but not their viability. Compared with traditional antibiotics, which often kill the bacteria, the risk of resistance development in disarmed bacteria is lower, since their survival does not depend on resistance against the new drug.

A Listeria infection can be very severe, particularly among patients such as elderly, infants, immunocompromised or pregnant women. Although disease occurrence is relatively low, Listeria’s severe and sometimes fatal health consequences make it among the most serious foodborne infections, with a mortality of 30%. Listeria is found in unpasteurized dairy products and various ready-to-eat foods, and can grow at refrigeration temperatures. In Sweden, 60-90 people per year get infected and the statistics show that the number of outbreaks is increasing.

The study involved several different Umeå University research groups with diverse specialties: Microbiology, Chemistry and Structural Biology. The group of Jörgen Johansson, professor at the laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) and the Department of Molecular Biology collaborated with the research groups of Elisabeth Sauer-Eriksson and Fredrik Almqvist, both professors at the Department of Chemistry.

Read more: New compounds discovered as possible candidates for new antimicrobial drugs against Listeria...