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Norwegian Cancer Symposium in Oslo Poster Prize: 3 December 2009
Dr Ragnhild Eskeland was awarded the first poster prize at the second Norwegian Cancer Symposium in Oslo, 2-4 December 2009. She presented a poster on her studies that are the first to show the mechanistic role for Polycomb complexes in directly mediating condensed chromatin structures and gene repression at target loci in mouse embryonic stem cells, independent of Polycomb's known role in mediating histone modifications.
The work was carried out in Professor Wendy Bickmore’s laboratory. The theme of the meeting was stem cells and their central role in cancer. This topic received a great interest with over 250 participants from all over Europe. Ragnhild was able to attend this conference with a Travel Award from Scottish Stem Cell Network and European Regional Development Fund.
Links
- The Scottish Stem Cell Network (SSCN)
- Second Norwegian Cancer Symposium 2009
- Cancer Stem Cell Symposium photo gallery
- Professor Wendy Bickmore's research pages
A Functional Edge: 21 January 2010
Professor Wendy Bickmore has been awarded an Advanced grant of €1.7m from the European Research Council (ERC). These 5 year grants are designed to support, innovative investigator-initiated research projects by leading established investigators in Europe.
The grant entitled “Functional Edge” will investigate how the very edge of the cell nucleus affects the functions of the genome. This leads on from Wendy’s original observation ten years ago, that human chromosomes are not randomly arranged but that certain chromosomes are preferentially located at the edge of the nucleus, whilst others locate far away. Half of the grant will be used to follow up recent findings from Wendy’s lab that positioning a gene against the edge of the nucleus can impede that gene’s expression and will ask how important this spatial information is in development. The rest of the grant will tackle the neglected idea that the edge of the nucleus has a role in protecting parts of our genome from DNA damage. Wendy said:
“I am particularly pleased that we can now address this exciting idea, because it was considered too risky for funding by more conventional grant agencies. Its a bold move by the ERC to support more speculative biological research”.
The research will open up new horizons on our understanding of the multiple levels of control through which genes and genome stability are regulated and the implications of this in both development and disease.
Links