We are honored and happy to announce that two of CanCell’s aspiring members receive research grants!
Alf Håkon Lystad, a former member of professor Anne Simonsen’s group Autophagy, now in Harald Stenmark's lab, receives a young talent grant of 8 MNOK for his project “DETECT and PROTECT - Surviving Insults to intracellular compartments”:
To guard the cell interior against pathogens and other insults, it is vital that our cells meet threats with targeted and swift responses. For compartments like endosomes, lysosomes and phagosomes a key response is Conjugation of ATG8 proteins to Single Membranes (CASM). This membrane attachment of ATG8 proteins provides a transient protein docking platform to scaffold protective countermeasures. Importantly, defects in CASM compromises our defense against pathogens and makes us susceptible to auto-inflammatory and autoimmune disease. However, the mechanisms and processes through which CASM prevents these pathological conditions remain unknown and is therefore the focus of the DETECT and PROTECT project.
Young talent grants are research grants given to talented researchers below the age of 40, read more about it here at the Research Council’s webpages
Dagim Shiferaw Tadele, a member in Professor Jorrit Enserinks group Cancer Molecular Medicine (OUS/CanCell) and a member in Professor Simon Rayners group Bioinformatics: The role of non-coding RNAs in disease (OUS) are awarded the mobility grant from the NFR for his project “Unlocking the potential of precision medicine to promote drug sensitivity in lung cancer”. The grant is 3.6 MNOK and involves a two-year stay abroad.
With grants like these, we will get one step closer to better understanding of cellular mechanisms and unlocking the potential in precision medicine to treat cancer. We would like to send our congratulations to both Lystad and Tadele and wish you great success in your projects! You can read more about the grant proposals and the other grantees from the University of Oslo on the Medical faculty Norwegian webpages.
Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal (forskningsradet.no)