Sapere Aude grants for neurons, glucagon, lung failure and great dilemmas
Four researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences receive Sapere Aude research leader grants. They each receive DKK 6 million for their innovative projects.
Out of the 42 new Sapere Aude grants provided by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, four go to researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. They are: Anja Marie Bornø Jensen from the Department of Public Health. Signe Mathiasen from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ronan Berg from the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Nicolai Jacob Wever from Center for Protein Research.
The Sapere Aude grant pool supports talented research leaders, giving them a chance to head their own research team.
“By supporting the best ideas from the most talented researchers, we contribute to creating optimum conditions for the individual researcher as well as for science, which benefits all of us,” says Maja Horst, who chairs the Board of the Independent Research Fund Denmark.
And the many Sapere Aude projects do cover a wide field of science. Aside from the health and medical sciences, the University of Copenhagen is with its 14 grants also represented in theology, Nordic studies and natural sciences.
The four researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences receive just over DKK 6 million each. Read more about the four projects below.
Anja Marie Bornø Jensen, Department of Public Health
Title: “TechnEmotion: The Interaction between Technology and Emotion in Transplant Medicine”. Grant: DKK 6,191,999.
New medical technologies constantly present us with new treatment options, new dilemmas and new ways of experimenting with human and animal bodies. This makes us contemplate our definitions of life and death, our understanding of the human body and what distinguishes human from animal. Big questions like these affect our emotions. But perhaps emotions also affect the way new technologies are implemented and used?
TechnEmotion is an anthropological project that studies the relation between technology and emotion in situations of life and death and when we are faced with difficult decisions. Anja Marie Bornø Jensen focusses on organ transplantation, which is an area characterised by great dilemmas and the desire for new technological solutions. Her research team will shine a spotlight on donation after circulatory death, which is about to be introduced in Denmark, organs in machines, uterus transplantation, anonymous kidney donation and research on transplantation from animal to human.
By visiting and talking to patients, families and health professionals who have personal experience with transplantation technology, TechnEmotion offers new knowledge about the future of organ transplantation and a framework for understanding the relation between technology and emotions. This can help us develop the area in Denmark and give us insight into humans’ emotions and thoughts on new medical technologies. Last, but not least, the study looks at how technologies can be used in a positive, caring way. The results will prove useful to various aspects of medical technology in situations of life and death.
Signe Mathiasen, Department of Biomedical Sciences
Title: “Signaling properties of ADGRL3, an adhesion GPCR putatively activated by mechanical transsynaptic forces”. Grant: DKK 6,191,040.
Nerve cells are the most important cells in our nervous system. Nerve cells – neurons – send signals from one cell to the next via the specialised branching connecting neighbouring cells. The gap between two nerve ends, the synapse, is so narrow that proteins are able to bridge it, thus stabilising the synapse. New genetic research shows that one of these “bridge builders”, the ADGRL3 protein, is implicated in ADHD and other neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, but scientists still do not know how this protein is activated and affects the neurons’ signalling capacity. One hypothesis is that ADGRL3 is activated by mechanical stress which propagates along its bridge-building bonds.
In this project, Signe Mathiasen will test this hypothesis by means of molecular sensors which emit light when ADGRL3 is activated and initiates a signalling cascade inside the cell. Using highly specialised microscopes and optical forceps which allow for mechanical impact on ADGRL3, the group will identify the connection between ADGRL3’s bridge-building capacities and its signalling abilities. This knowledge may contribute to the design of improved medical strategies against neuropsychiatric disorders.
Ronan Berg, Department of Biomedical Sciences
Title: “Pulmonary Immune Cell-Microbiome Interactions in ARDS”. Grant: DKK 6,190,680.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how differently our immune systems may respond to infection. A series of studies suggest that differences in the T cells’ response to infection in the lungs are significant in this context. Normally, the T cells play a key role in maintaining healthy lung tissue, and this includes controlling which and how many potentially harmful immune cells are allowed into the lungs.
New studies have shown that poor T cell function contributes to potentially lethal lung damage in connection with COVID-19. Using a series of brand new advanced techniques, Ronan Berg and his group will seek to determine whether similar mechanisms are associated with lung failure in the many patients who suffer from other severe infections aside from COVID-19. This will help to identify the function of the T cells and other immune cells in the lungs in healthy individuals as well as intensive care patients on life support. Seeing as a natural, highly diverse local bacteria flora is key to maturing and controlling the immune cells in the lungs, the project will focus on the interplay between T cells and bacteria.
The results of the study will help determine whether the mechanisms – or parts of them – recently identified in COVID-19 patients suffering from severe lung failure are unique to this condition or instead common mechanisms in lung failure. This will help us understand the disease mechanisms in depth and thus identify new biomarkers of disease and possibly also new targets for treatment.
Nicolai Jacob Wewer Albrechtsen, Center for Protein Research
Title: "Glucagon receptor signaling and resistance in metabolic diseases". Grant: DKK 5.070.554
The project is about the hormone glucagon and its effect and significance for the development of so-called metabolic diseases. Up to 50% of the world's population has to some extent a metabolic disease including obesity and fatty liver disease.
The effects of glucagon include regulation of blood sugar but perhaps equally important is its role in protein and fat metabolism. When glucagon is secreted into our bloodstream, it activates thousands of processes in our cells. But we only know a few of these and even less of their significance for disease development. This project will conduct a so-called translational study where we will investigate glucagon signaling pathways in cell models, animal models and in people with metabolic disease, and test whether modifying these signaling pathways may provide the basic for new treatment options.
Kontakt
Pressekonsulent Karen Marie Bjørnstrup Vølund
kmbv@ufm.dk
+45 72 31 89 31