3. February 2020

Other January News in Brief

New research from CellPAT, CeMiSt and Morten Bennedsen; TED talk about the death and birth of stars with Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz; critically acclaimed anthology originates from Rita Felski’s Niels Bohr Professorship; numerous grants to researchers affiliated with the DNRF’s Centers of Excellence. All this in Other January News in Brief here.

Watch a TED talk about the birth and death of stars with Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz

Watch the DNRF’s Niels Bohr Professor Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz talk about his research and how we all basically originate from the stars (video below).

Head of center Jørgen Kjems is one of the main authors of a recent study in Nature Communications

Researchers from the DNRF Center CellPAT at Aarhus University, including head of center Jørgen Kjems, are part of the team behind a new study in Nature Communications. The study describes how the research team succeeded in building a so-called synthetic DNA nanopore, which is capable of translocating large protein-sized macromolecules between compartments separated by a lipid bilayer. Lipid membranes act as a kind of barrier around the cells, and therefore, the nanopore potentially allows the transport of large molecules between the cells. In addition, a functional gating system was introduced inside the pore together with a controllable plug, which enabled the researchers to size-selectively control the flow of protein-size molecules. The long-term hope is that the mechanisms of the DNA pore can be developed to allow diagnosis at the single-cell level.

Further information can be found in a press release from Aarhus University here

The scientific article can be found in Nature Communications here

The praised anthology “Litteratur i brug” derives from a DNRF Niels Bohr Professorship

A new literary theory work by a professor at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Anne Marie Mai, entitled “Litteratur i brug” (Literature in use), has reaped great reviews in Danish newspapers, e.g., Kristelig Dagblad and Politiken. The critically acclaimed anthology was published under the auspices of the DNRF’s Niels Bohr Professorship to Professor Rita Felski at SDU. The book is an introduction to how literature can be used in many contexts and discourses other than literary ones. Felski wrote the book’s foreword, and the book is based on research done in the project “Uses of Literature,” which is part of Felski’s professorship. The aim of the Uses of Literature project is to examine literature as a social actor and, through an interdisciplinary research work, try to develop new methods to analyze what literature does and how it can be used in everything from medicine to sociology.

Read Jes Stein Pedersen’s review of “Litteratur I brug” in Politiken here (in Danish)

The Confederation of Danish Industry writes about research conducted by Morten Bennedsen

In an article published in January, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) writes about Professor Morten Bennedsen’s research on family-owned ompanies. Professor Bennedsen, who has a DNRF Niels Bohr Professorship, has investigated how a number of European and Japanese companies manage to survive through multiple generations and centuries, and how they have survived everything from wars, revolutions, starvation, and mass deaths, to financial crises and internal fights within the families. The study was done in collaboration with Brian Henry from the French business school INSEAD.

Du kan læse artiklen om Morten Bennedsens forskning hos Dansk Industri Business her

CeMist researchers unveil 13 bacterial genomes

A research team from the DNRF center CeMiSt at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has recently sequenced complete genomes of 13 Bacillus species from Germany and Denmark. The study was led by CeMiSt Professor Ákos Kovács, in collaboration with Professor Tilmann Weber from DTU Biosustain and CeMiSt. Using specialized tools, the researchers have investigated the part of the living organism’s compounds called secondary metabolites in the genome of the 13 Bacillus species. The result showed that all of the species’ strains had genes encoding the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. This study is a step forward to understanding what the role of this metabolite in the natural niches of the Bacilli bacterium might be.

Several researchers associated with DNRF centers have recently received grants

At the Center for Intelligent Drug Delivery and Nanomechanical Sensors (IDUN) at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the following researchers have received grants during the most recent period:

Senior researcher Tomas Rindzevicius has received an H2020 Framework Grant for the project “Exploiting Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) and Advanced Algorithms for Guiding Responses to Potential Chemical Threats (SERSing).”
Post-doc Sarvesh Srivastava has received a Lundbeck Experiment Grant for the project “Magnetically-guided Co-delivery of Immunostimulator and Chemotherapeutic Drugs (MagIC microbots).”

In addition, IDUN researchers have received a grant of DKK 5 million from the Carlsberg Foundation for an instrument used for Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS).

More information about the grant and CARS can be found here

From the Center for Medieval Literature (CML) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), the following two researchers have recently received grants:

Professor MSO Christian Høgel, who is also co-founder of CML, received a grant of SEK 39 million from the Riksbank’s Jubilee Fund in the autumn of 2019 for the project “Retracing Connections: Byzantine Storyworlds in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, and Old Slavonic (c. 950 – c. 1100).” More information can be found at CML here.
Assistant Professor Aglae Pizzone has received two grants:a NOS-HS grant of €38,300 for the project “Before Copyright: Pre-modern Practices of Intellectual Property Protection,” and a grant of DKK 2,877,895 for the project “Medieval Self-Commentaries Beyond Europe: A Transcultural Perspective,” from the Independent Research Fund Denmark. More information about Pizzone’s NOS-H grant can be found at CML here.

The Center for Personalized Medicine of Infectious Complications in Immune Deficiency (PERSIMUNE) at Rigshospitalet is also among the recipients of a Horizon 2020 grant of approximately €10 million from the EU’s ERC research program. The large grant has been awarded to 11 partners from Europe and the United States who together support the research project “Microbiome-based stratification of individuals at risk of HIV-1 acquisition, chronic clinical complications, antimicrobial drug resistance, and unresponsiveness to therapeutic HIV-1 vaccination (MISTRAL).” Out of the total grant amount, €1 million go to CHIP, of which PERSIMUNE is a part.