Akademiliv

Sahlgrenska akademins nyheter

På Svenska
University of Gothenburg Logotype
  • News
  • Notices
  • Calendar
  • Grants
  • About Akademiliv

A research leader of the future establishes a team in Gothenburg

14 April, 2020

YOUNG RESEARCHERS. After six years in the United States, Linda Johansson is back at Medicinareberget in  Gothenburg. With advanced microscopy methods, she will study the interaction between two receptors for melatonin in the brain. Eventually, the research can lead to better treatments of type 2 diabetes and other ailments.

Linda Johansson is one of the young researchers recently named as a research leader of the future by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), a recognition that provides her with SEK 12 million over five years. The Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Society for Medical Research (SSMF) have also awarded her grants, and she will soon be recruiting new members to her recently established research team at Medicinareberget.

She returned to Gothenburg at Christmas, after six years as a postdoc in the United States.

“I received a really warm welcome back at the institute and immediately received a spot in a lab so that I could get started. I have extensive training from the United States, and I can do a lot on my own, from cloning DNA and cultivating cells to preparing proteins and performing different types of optimizations,” explains Linda Johansson.

Back to where it began

As a medical structural biologist, her group and she have a niche to fill here at the Institute of Biomedicine. The institute has a fantastic breadth, and she is looking forward to the collaborations that can form.

Now she and several other biomedical teams are moving from their current locations in the Biomedical Building to the other side of Medicinarlängan, where newly renovated facilities in Lundberg Laboratory await them. That was also the building where Linda Johansson began her doctoral studies:

“I am returning to the place where I began my academic journey,” she says with a laugh. “It’s great to have a renovated building, but it has been a bit of a challenge to plan all the purchases without knowing exactly how the facilities were planned.”

Best doctoral thesis of the year

As a doctoral student, she developed techniques for generating nano-sized crystals for an imaging technique called X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL), with which her supervisor Richard Neutze was a pioneer. After she defended her thesis, which included determination of the 3D structure for a particular protein in bacterial cell membranes, she received the award for the best doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Science in 2013.

Since then, she has worked in the United States as a postdoc in a group that initially was based at the Scripps Research Institute, and then moved to the University of Southern California. During her time as a postdoc, she moved from bacterial to human biochemistry and began working with G-protein-coupled receptors in humans.

From bacteria to humans

“I really wanted to apply my work to something that can lead to new treatment methods and new drugs. It is also fun to be able to apply the method I helped develop to new problems.”

She chose the receptor group that is most common in humans, G-protein-coupled receptors. The discovery of these receptors resulted in the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Lefkowitz and Koblika.

“It is an important receptor group, which is illustrated by the fact that about a third of all drugs act on these types of receptors. There has been a lot of research on their structure and function. Even so, it is very difficult to predict what nearby receptors look like and how they work. For example, the same drug can bind to multiple different receptors but in different ways, which in turn causes different effects. Something that is critical when developing drugs.”

Work in Nature

Her stay as a postdoc in the United States can only be described as successful. Two major articles have now been published in Nature, where she shares co-first authorship. These articles describe how two G-protein-coupled receptors interact with nearby molecules on a molecular level, that is, the receptors’ interactions with the ligands.

The team she is now establishing at Medicinareberget will focus on how the two melatonin receptors, known as MT1 and MT2, form a complex (known as a dimer). She will study both the structure and function of this complex, which has different characteristics than the two receptors individually.

A moving target

“It is a huge challenge to determine their structure using XFEL, since they are moving and changing shape. They are very flexible and part of their function includes shifting between active and inactive positions. We have to stabilize the proteins in one of these two positions, and this is difficult without destroying their function.” Instead, she will use an advanced cryoelectron microscope at SciLifeLab in Stockholm to capture multiple positions of the proteins.

By expanding our understanding of exactly how the receptors work, there is excellent potential for developing drugs that are more selective in binding with the most relevant receptors. This, in turn, will avoid unnecessary side effects from sleep inducing drugs. The research can also lead to new targets for treating type 2 diabetes.

TEXT AND PHOTO: ELIN LINDSTRÖM

By: Elin Lindström
Tagged With: SciLifeLab, Unga forskare

Add your own events in the Akademiliv Calendar

Akademiliv will take time off during the Easter holidays, and therefore no ordinary newsletter will come on Wednesday, April 12.

Registration for supervisors – no later than April 14th

Information from Sahlgrenska Academy Research Support Office

[UPDATED MAR 22]
The Sahlgrenska Academy Research Support Office provides an overview of upcoming and current calls, nominations and events in an information letter. This letter is updated approximately four times per semester.

’20 minutes for researchers’ is back – see full spring program

During 20 minutes over Zoom, the Biomedical Library gives tips on tools and services that can facilitate your research everyday life.

We are building at Medicinareberget

You will now find comprehensive information on construction projects that affect the Sahlgrenska Academy in the Staff Portal.

Lunch menus

Café Anatomen
Menu not available on website.

Café Annedal
Menu not available on website.

Lunchen.nu

Lustgården på Änggårdsbacken
Take away for external guests between 11.00-12.30 weekdays.

Lyktan

Mersmak Mölndal

Mersmak Sahlgrenska

Mersmak Östra

Salt & Syra

More news

See the pictures from the Conferment of Doctoral Degrees

27 March, 2023

ACADEMIC CEREMONIES. On Friday, March 24, the university held the 2022 the Conferment of Doctoral Degrees. Among the new doctors who received …  

More men than women undergo surgery for nasal congestion

27 March, 2023

DISSERTATION. Seventy percent of patients who have had surgery for chronic nasal congestion are satisfied. But the surgery is performed …  

Two Pro-Vice-Chancellor candidates suggested – both from Sahlgrenska Academy

24 March, 2023

UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT. The recruitment committee has now held interviews with Pro-Vice-Chancellor candidates. The committee suggests to the …  

17 researchers in Gothenburg received funding from the Rheumatism Association

23 March, 2023

CONTRIBUTION. 17 researchers at Gothenburg University and Sahlgrenska University Hospital receive a total of SEK 2,160,000 in research funds from …  

Low education and income linked to severe epilepsy

23 March, 2023

DOCTORAL THESIS. Statistically, people with low educational attainment and income who have epilepsy suffer more than others from the condition. …  

Centre for Health Governance inaugurated

22 March, 2023

INAUGURATION. The Centre for Health Governance is a joint venture between the School of Business, Economics and Law and the Sahlgrenska Academy …  

Seniors’ use of urinary-tract infection antibiotics halved

22 March, 2023

NEW STUDY. As an international study involving University of Gothenburg researchers has shown, a decision tool for health professionals has …  

Successful day for research in primary and close care

21 March, 2023

COLLABORATION. For the first time, the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Gothenburg and Regional Health’s R …  

Effective treatment in rare but deadly form of cancer

21 March, 2023

NEW STUDY. An advanced surgical therapy has proved considerably more efficacious than conventional treatments for patients with melanoma in the …  

Kidney research highlighted in discussions at the Royal Palace of Stockholm

20 March, 2023

COLLABORATION. Professor Jenny Nyström was one of four kidney researchers recently invited to the Royal Palace of Stockholm, where Prince Daniel …  

More news...

Sahlgrenska Academy

© University of Gothenburg
PO-Box 100, S-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Phone: 00 46 31 786 0000

About the website

Elin Lindström is editor for Akademiliv.
Please feel free to send your ideas and comments to akademiliv@gu.se

Sign up for the Akademiliv newsletter:

Send you tips to Akademiliv

Do you have a suggestion for news, grants, seminars or an education?
Send an email to Elin Lindström Claessen