Pioneers in protein synthesis celebrated at symposium
The two-day symposium titled “The Ehrenberg and Liljas Symposium – Milestones and Mechanisms of Protein Synthesis”, brought together over 25 leading researchers from around the world. Photo: Hanna Turesson.
An international symposium was recently held at the Evolutionary Biology center to honour two prominent pioneers in protein synthesis: Professor Måns Ehrenberg and Professor Anders Liljas. Among the speakers were Professor Joachim Frank, one of the winners of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Charlotte Platzer Björkman. Photo: Hanna Turesson.
The two-day symposium titled “The Ehrenberg and Liljas Symposium – Milestones and Mechanisms of Protein Synthesis”, brought together over 25 leading researchers from around the world, including 2017 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Professor Joachim Frank.
Organized by Professors Suparna Sanyal and Maria Selmer, together with Associate Professor Magnus Johansson, from the Department and Cell and Molecular Biology, the event celebrated the scientific legacy of two Uppsala University based pioneers of the field of protein synthesis — Professor Måns Ehrenberg and Professor Anders Liljas.
“Your work is really worth celebrating and we see the effects of your pioneering achievements still today,” said Vice-Rector Charlotte Platzer Björkman in her opening speech.
Attracting top-level researchers
She highlighted how the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology is attracting top-leveI researchers and continuing to develop infrastructure to meet research needs.
“Nationally the field of molecular biology is thriving and I think we'll continue to see how it plays a key role in biotechnology, medicine, agriculture, fundamental science and the understanding of life in many years to come. And I'm confident that important contributions to this area will continue to come also from Uppsala University,” said the Vice-Rector.
Professor Joachim Frank. Photo: Hanna Turesson.
Groundbreaking results
Professor Joachim Frank was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2017 for his work on developing techniques for cryo-electron microscopy, that proved to be an effective method for producing three-dimensional images of the macromolecules of life.
In his continuing research on time-resolved methods, he and his research group are studying intermediate states of mRNA translation reaction on a millisecond scale.
"We are able to look at reactions at 10 milliseconds, 20, 30, 100 and so forth. This is a technology that is new. There are several groups in the world now that work on it with different methodologies. Ours really works and we have been able to get fantastic results with it in studying transient intermediates of protein synthesis,” said Joachim Frank.
Anneli Björkman