The overwhelming majority of our biological knowledge stems from the study of organisms found in our immediate surroundings or from within our own bodies. This holds true for bacteria as well, as the most well-studied species are from environments inhabited by humans or from within the human body itself. However, there are numerous conditions where the majority of these species are unable to survive but other bacteria are able to survive and even thrive. One such example are species belonging to the genus Psychrobacter, which can be found living in the icy terrain of Antarctica.
The Systems Immunology Research Group at HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged led by Máté Manczinger is participating in a HORIZON-HEALTH-2023-DISEASE-03 project named ID-DarkMatter-NCD.
The Algae4IBD project (https://algae4ibd.eu/) brings together 21 researcher institutes and companies from 11 countries to unify their expertise in different fields to help patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Chronic inflammation of the digestive tract is a very complex disease for which there is no universally applicable treatment. Since algae are known to produce specific bioactive molecules, they are a promising source when looking for new therapeutic agents.
Ten life scientists from seven countries (Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Turkey) have been awarded EMBO Installation Grants, that support group leaders who will move or have recently moved to countries participating in the scheme. In the four years prior to their application, they have spent at least two consecutive years outside the country where they are now setting up their laboratory. The ten funded applications span a broad range of biological processes including aging, tumor biology, gut-brain axis communication, microbiota, and gene editing tools.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet announced that Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19"