Danish-Swedish microscope alliance to strengthen Nordic life sciences

With support from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, four universities in Denmark and Sweden – the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Stockholm University and Umeå University – have formed a research alliance. The alliance will use a so-called cryo-electron microscope, which will be looking for new molecules and protein structures that may form the basis of new drugs for treating e.g. dementia, obesity, diabetes and cancer.

Research field with great potential

Protein research is a promising field within the development of drugs and here the cryo-electron microscope plays a main role. Within structural biology the microscope is considered revolutionary and the technology behind it received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2017.

Denmark holds an internationally acknowledge position within the field of protein research, which makes up great opportunities for foreign businesses and researchers to tap into.

Among leading protein research centres is for example the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Protein Research established at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

The centre aims to be world leading in integrative protein technologies and their application to accelerate understanding of the biological processes underlying health and disease.

Nordic collaboration with global impact

In CryoNet the researchers from the four universities will now share knowledge about their research with the microscope, which is located at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences in Copenhagen.

In addition to knowledge sharing, CryoNet will hold regular seminars and provide instruction in the findings and functions of the microscope in order to introduce researchers from all over the world to the new technology.