News

MAX IV facility in Lund.
Photo cred: MAX IV

2023-01-27

Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry

"PRISMAS has a unique collaborative and multicomponent environment and connects fundamental science

A new intersectoral and interdisciplinary project between nine Swedish Universities and MAX IV – a Ph.D. programme called PRISMAS – launches in January 2023. The program is dedicated to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Horizon Europe's essential research and innovation areas. The project will create a connected network of next-generation X-ray experts, enabling various stakeholders to take full advantage of world-leading synchrotron facilities such as MAX IV, while tackling current societal challenges in the same breath.

Deciphering cell diversity in the brain by probing diverse epigenetic information simultaneously in single cells: Nano CUT&tag takes advantage of modified nanobodies, fragments of antibodies occurring in camelids such as alpacas, to map histone modifications in thousands of individual cells in the mouse brain. Illustration by Amagoia Agirre.

2022-12-21

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Simultaneous mapping of several different epigenetic landmarks in a single cell

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet had in 2021 developed a technique making possible to examine how different versions of histones bind to the genome in tens of thousands of individual cells. Now the same team developed a new technology allowing simultaneous probing of several different histone marks in one individual cell and in thousands of cells at the same time. This new method allows to investigate in much greater detail how cells in the mouse brain acquire unique properties and specialize. The study is published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

DNA Research Health and Living Conditions

2022-12-08

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

New method for mapping cancer paves the way for treatment of incurable brain cancer in children

Children diagnosed with brain cancer often die within a year of their initial diagnosis because there are no effective treatments for this rare form of cancer. But by visualizing the cancer cells, researchers have now gained a better understanding of what the tumors look like. The hope is that it will lead to new treatment methods. This is shown by a study with researchers at, among others, Stockholm University and SciLifeLab, recently published in Nature Genetics.

DNA Research Health and Living Conditions SciLifeLab Life Science

2022-11-10

Breast cancer spread uncovered by new molecular microscopy

Researchers have created a tool that maps how breast cancer grows in previously unseen detail, and highlights how the cells around the tumor may be the key to controlling the spread of disease

DNA Research Health and Living Conditions Life Science

2022-10-18

AI will map proteins and increase understanding of how cells work

Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning are becoming increasingly important to map the proteins in our cells and how they interact with each other. In a new project, the researchers will develop tools to increase understanding of how cells work.

Chemistry Digitalization and AI Life Science SciLifeLab

Martin Högbom utanför Arrheniuslaboratoriet

2022-09-01

Chemistry Section

Martin Högbom wants to be as good as nature at chemistry

Martin Högbom talks about his research in a video from the Knut och Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Chemistry Life Science Sustainable Chemistry

2022-05-30

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

New mechanism for regulating supply of DNA building blocks may lead to better antibiotics

In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Stockholm University show for the first time how NrdR binds to DNA to inhibit RNR. The novel mechanism could help scientists design better antibiotics by targeting a pathogen’s ability to reproduce.

2022-05-17

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Physics provides new perspective on cellular function and evolution

Researchers have mapped the physicochemical properties of proteins in 20,000 organisms. The results, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), show that the properties not only provide clues to understanding evolution and adaptation, but also add new dimensions to the established taxonomical classification system.

Chemistry

2022-05-17

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

The 2022 Sigrid Arrhenius scholarship to Nicklas Österlund, doctoral student at DBB.

The scholarship is awarded for outstanding research work that leads to a doctoral degree. This year, the research fellow will receive SEK 61,000.

2022-05-17

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

A repressor that monitors the supply of DNA building blocks

Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is an essential enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of DNA building blocks. In a new study from Britt-Marie Sjöberg’s and Pål Stenmark’s groups at DBB, they present several cryo-EM structures and the mechanism of action of NrdR. NrdR is the RNR-specific repressor, that controls transcription of RNR genes in bacteria. The repressor uses an unprecedented nucleotide-sensing oligomerization mechanism to control NrdR-dependent transcription of ribonucleotide reductases.

Chemistry

2022-03-30

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

The Svedberg Prize 2021 to Ville Kaila at DBB

The prize is awarded to a successful biochemist or molecular biologist who is active in Sweden and who has not turned 40 during the year that the prize is awarded.

Chemistry Life Science

2022-03-29

His software has taken the life sciences to a new level

The GROMACS computer software developed by Erik Lindahl’s research group to simulate the molecules of life, is used all around the world to study different processes in our cells. He is using the software to solve a medical riddle: how can substances like alcohol and narcotics cause our nerve cells to disfunction?

Chemistry Life Science

Pål Stenmark sees botulinum toxins as Lego building kits that can change to give them new features and become even more useful. Photo: Rickard Kihlström

2022-03-16

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

The world's most dangerous poison can be of great benefit as a drug

Pål Stenmark sees botulinum toxin – the world's most dangerous poison – as a lego building kit he can change so that it gets new features. One goal is to develop new and more effective drugs, including for pain. Through molecular genealogy, he has also found a new family of botulinum toxins, where a variant can fight malaria mosquitoes.

Chemistry Health and Living Conditions Life Science

Figure. Cryo EM maps of the mammalian Na+/H+ exchanger NHA2 in nanodiscs using data collected from the Cryo-EM Swedish National Facility at SciLife Stockholm for cryo-EM data collection as well as the Umeå Core Facility for Electron Microscopy (UCEM) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).

2022-03-16

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Scientists show how a salt transporter linked to hypertension and diabetes works

NHA2 is a protein spanning the membrane in kidney and -cells that absorbs salt and its activity is linked with hypertension and diabetes in humans. The transporter-protein exchangers the movement of sodium ions across cell membranes with the movement of protons. Researchers at Stockholm University have now determined what the protein looks like and how the protein adapts to the membrane. These findings shed new light into this important biological mechanism, and provide a basis for structural-based drug discovery.

Chemistry Life Science

Eva Hedlund's basic research aims to find new treatments for patients with diseases such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and SMA (spinal muscle atrophy). Photo: Sören Andersson

2022-03-16

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Basic research for the benefit of ALS patients

By understanding why certain nerve cells and the muscles they control are resistant to fading in the deadly disease ALS, it is possible to create new possibilities for treatments. Researchers at Stockholm University are now trying to identify and transfer the properties of these resistant nerve cells.

SciLifeLab Chemistry Brain Research Life Science

Figure: The non-heme iron site of PSII catalyze the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon dissociation of bicarbonate (HCO3-). Figure by F. Allgöwer.

2022-03-15

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

Researchers at SU and Imperial College show how Photosystem II can produce reactive oxygen species

Photosystem II (PSII) is a key enzyme in photosynthesis that produces oxygen by capturing sunlight. The reaction couples to the reduction of plastoquinone, which in turn is used for the synthesis of biomass by fixation of CO2.

Chemistry Life Science