Tests provide new picture of the spread of the virus

Treating severe infections with a combination of antibiotics has long been standard practice in Swedish medicine. Despite this, at present there is no clinical test to prove how well it actually works. Researcher Nikos Fatsis-Kavalopoulos wants to change that.

Historic virus infections can be traced in vertebrate genomes. For millions of years, these genomes have been repositories for retroviruses that incorporated their code into germline cells and were inherited as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). Researchers from Uppsala University now provide new findings about retroviral establishment in the koala genome. The findings are being published in the journal PNAS.

Erik Schubert presented results on how human adenovirus can affect homeostasis in mitochondria, focusing on which viral protein may be responsible for mitochondrial DNA release.

Researchers at Uppsala University have discovered that the ancestors of legionella bacteria infected eukaryotic cells as early as two billion years ago. It happened soon after eukaryotes began to feed on bacteria. These results, described in a new study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, also contribute to the chicken-or-egg debate about whether mitochondria or phagocytosis came first.

“I’m passionate about understanding the genetic background of biodiversity development and I’d like our research to culminate in more sustainable use of herring and sprat, which are a superb resource,” writes Leif Andersson, Professor of Functional Genomics at IMBIM.

Cancerfonden´s research committee has decided to distribute SEK 732 million to 230 research projects. In total this year, there will be SEK 850 million for Swedish cancer research.

In cases of severe infection, identifying the correct antibiotic – and doing so quickly – can be a matter of life and death. At Uppsala University a very fast test for antibiotic resistance is being developed. The goal is to reduce the time from taking a sample to getting a result from one day to under four hours.

A large international consortium led by scientists at Uppsala University and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has sequenced the genome of 130 mammals and analysed the data together with 110 existing genomes to allow scientist to identify which are the important positions in the DNA. This new information can help both research on disease mutations in humans and how best to preserve endangered species. The study is published in Nature.

Vetenskapsrådet har fattat beslut om vilka ansökningar som beviljats bidrag inom Naturvetenskap och teknikvetenskap 2020. Uppsala universitet får 225 miljoner till 65 forskningsprojekt som spänner över ett brett fält av områden

Researchers at Uppsala University have developed a new method to determine – rapidly, easily and cheaply – how effective two antibiotics combined can be in stopping bacterial growth. The new method is simple for laboratories to use and can provide greater scope for customising treatment of bacterial infections. The study is published in PLOS Biology.

För att i framtiden snabbt kunna hejda utbrott av covid-19 som orsakas av viruset SARS-CoV-2 och för att redan nu kunna skydda utrotningshotade arter som riskerar att drabbas, behövs kunskap om vilka djur som är tänkbara smittbärare av viruset. Professor Kerstin Lindblad-Toh vid Uppsala universitet och hennes kollegor har identifierat ett stort antal däggdjur som potentiellt kan smittas.

European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth has invited six high-level scientists to identify future members of the ERC Scientific Council. One of the six is Carl-Henrik Heldin, senior prefessor at IMBIM.

The entire world is currently waiting for a vaccine against COVID-19. Intensive research is ongoing to develop useful drugs against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. At Uppsala Biomedical Centre (BMC), substances are being tested that attack the same type of enzyme as drugs against HIV and hepatitis C.

Two recent studies testing for antibodies against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 provide a new picture of the spread of virus in Sweden. “To gain a more realistic picture of the spread of the virus in Sweden, we need to perform more tests,” says Åke Lundkvist, professor of virology at Uppsala University.

Despite the traditional view that species do not exchange genes by hybridisation, recent studies show that gene flow between closely related species is more common than previously thought. A team of scientists from Uppsala University and Princeton University now reports how gene flow between two species of Darwin’s finches has affected their beak morphology. The study is published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Professor of Comparative Genomics at Uppsala University, has been elected as one of 146 new members of the National Academy of Sciences, founded by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

Scientists at Uppsala University have proposed an addition to the theory of evolution that can explain how and why genes move on chromosomes. The hypothesis, called the SNAP Hypothesis, is presented in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics.

Antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis is a common and serious problem globally. In a new article, researchers from Uppsala University describe how tuberculosis bacteria that carries a mutation that in theory should kill them manages to stay alive. The researchers discovered that the same trick that kept the bacteria alive also made them resistant to a very important type of antibiotic.

Maria Letizia Di Martino has been awarded 20,000 € by ESCMID (European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases). The project - Revealing the Shigella flexneri epithelial invasome in a human enteroid infection model - will provide a global map of the Shigella virulence factors required for infection of the human “mini-intestine” model. This will form a solid basis for future molecular studies of human shigellosis, a research field thus far hampered by the lack of physiological infection models.

Cancerfonden has decided to give an additional SEK 670 million to Swedish cancer research. This means that the Swedish Cancer Society decided this year on a record dividend of SEK 770 million. It is the largest amount in the history of the Swedish Cancer Society.