HALRIC Hanseatic Life Science Research Infrastructure Consortium

🚀 In August this HALRIC Pilot Project will kick off with Deniz Biçer heading from Denmark to the MAX IV Laboratory in Sweden to support the project during the first four months. This marks a promising start for the new cross-border collaboration between the researchers at Molecular Biology & Genetics - Aarhus University, Søren Thirup, Deniz, Rosa Groth and beamline experts Tobias Krojer, Ana Gonzalez at MAX IV. Through Fragment-based Active Site Exploration (FASE), the research team aims to map potential drug binding sites on the Human Leucocyte common antigen related protein (LAR) and understand enzyme-plastic interactions for SP3. The Thirup Lab at AU and the #FragMAX and #BioMAX beamline teams are combining their expertise for this initiative with the goals to: ✳️ LAR Protein: To map pockets and cavities on LAR, facilitating the design of drugs for treating psychiatric disorders. ✳️ SP3 Enzyme: To map the active and binding sites on SP3 and its homologs to better understand enzyme-plastic interactions, which is also in collaboration with Jens Preben Morth at DTU - Technical University of Denmark. In HALRIC we’re excited about the potential impact of this project and we encourage you to find out more👇 #DrugDiscovery #EnvironmentalScience #Research #Innovation #Sustainability #HALRICPilotProject #Collaboration #overgransen

The first volume II of a HALRIC pilot project will now contine with the data management of the initial proof-of-concept study to understand intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Congratulations to the research team who have been combining scattering and imaging techniques in the proof-of concept study and will now look into establishing routines for processing and analyzing data. The results are expected to constitute a significant step towards deciphering the structure-function relationship of IDPs, which is vital for developing the next generations of pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics, i.e., antimicrobial peptides. The ability of IDPs and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) in proteins to self-associate is a vital mechanism for the formation of membrane-less organelles and cell structures. The self-association of IDPs play crucial roles in several cell functions, including immune response, genome organization, transcription, and neuronal signaling. On the other hand, several proteins that self-associate are also involved in neurological diseases, where they form toxic aggregates; these diseases include Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson’s disease. The mechanisms behind IDP-mediated self-association still need to be better understood and the expanded project team will now, with more extensive computer simulations, tune in on the data management of the large amount of data obtained in the previous HALRIC pilot project experiments. Marie Skepö, Adam Round, PhD, Ann Terry, Stuart Ansell, Henrik Vinther Sørensen, Oskar Svensson, Felix Engelmann It will be exciting to following this #HALRICPilotProject #overgransen💥 Lund University, European XFEL, MAX IV Laboratory 

In June this HALRIC pilot project kicked off their first activities towards tackling the global challenge of multidrug-resistant bacteria, responsible for 1.27 million deaths annually. By 2050, this number could rise to 10 million worldwide unless new antibiotic solutions are developed. The cross-border research team focuses on colistin, a potent antibiotic effective against various gram-negative bacteria, but also known for its kidney toxicity. The research approach is to encapsulate colistin in nanoparticles and an aim of the pilot project is to uncover the intricate internal structure of these nanoparticles and their molecular dynamics, which are crucial for improving their pharmacological profiles. The collaboration is between Reidar Lund, Thomas Vogelaar, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo and Jan Skov Pedersen, Department of Chemistry - Aarhus University and they will employ three scattering techniques: ✳️ Large-scale Neutron Scattering #SANS at the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) in France. ✳️ Small-Angle X-ray Scattering #SAXS and Dynamic Light Scattering at AU and UiO, Norwegian Centre for X-ray Diffraction, Scattering and Imaging (REXS). This joint effort not only underlines the importance of cross-border collaboration in scientific research, but also brings us a step closer to new, safer antibiotic formulations to combat MDR bacteria. Find out more about this HALRIC Pilot Project including references: https://lnkd.in/dNHsZaXp Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center - Aarhus University #Science #Innovation #Collaboration #Research #Antibiotics #Nanotechnology #GlobalHealth #HALRIC #overgransen

Join Us for the HALRIC Conference 2024 in Hamburg! We are excited to gather our 21 consortium partners, collaborators and network for insightful discussions and unparalleled networking opportunities💥 📅 Dates: 24-25 September 2024 📍 Location: Bahrenfeld Campus, CFEL, Hamburg This is a unique opportunity to connect with experts and innovators in the Life Science Research Infrastructure community across Scandinavia and Hamburg. Program highlights: 🎉 Conference opening with Universität Hamburg President, Hauke Heekeren and 2nd Mayor of Hamburg, Katharina Fegebank, who will also join the panel to kick off the HALRIC Strategic Forum. Further perspectives will be shared by the panelists Viktor Öwall (Pro Vice Chancellor, Lund University), Christian Gerloff (Medical Director, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg Eppendorf), Thomas Feurer (MD, European XFEL) and more! 💡 Keynote speech by Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, Chief Sustainability Officer at the University of Hamburg. 🔬 Showcase of HALRIC pilot projects with clinical and industry involvement by Tobias Todsen, Rigshospitalet and Pernille Rose Jensen, DTU Health Tech AND not least HALRIC highlights, outlook and roundtable discussion, by Kajsa M Paulsson and others, while in safe hands with the moderators of the two days, Petter Magnusson Hartman (CEO, Medicon Village) and Arwen Pearson, UHH. Don’t miss out on this chance to connect with #HALRIC and be part of the Life Science RI community in the Øresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak-Hamburg region! Sakura Pascarelli, Selma Maric, Linda Eliasson, PhD, Emanuel Larsson, Lucy Holt, Steffi Tille, Ph.D., Jakob Øster, Josephine Ward, Nikolina Sekulic, Michael Gajhede, Maria Sundh, Claus Højlund, Stephan Bouman, Sarah Niemann, Hanne Mette Kristensen, Sarah Marshall-Bensch, Klaus von Lepel, Anders Sjöström, Ingegerd W. 🎟️ View the Full Program and Register Now: https://lnkd.in/dh2AxrWA The conference is free to attend, but seats are limited to 120 participants. So if we reach full capacity we have to prioritize project partners and key stakeholders. 📧 For any questions, feel free to reach out to Mette Bach Dyremose at HALRICs facilitating partner Medicon Valley Alliance. #LifeScience #ResearchInfrastructure #Collaboration #overgransen with Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak

🌍 Featuring HALRIC in an EU perspective at Denmark's largest democratic festival, Folkemødet! This year Folkemødet was the biggest ever since its inception in 2011, with a record 47,000 number of attendees and over 3,400 events and debates. HALRIC highlights were: 📢 Inspiring Pitch: On Thursday, Mette Bach Dyremose delivered an inspiring pep talk about #HALRIC and the efforts to bring researchers, clinicians, and businesses together to maximize the use of Research Infrastructures in the ÖKS-Hamburg region. HALRIC pitched along seven other projects invited by Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak and Interreg Deutschland-Danmark. 🔬 Interactive Technology Demonstrations: On Friday, HALRIC invited visitors to experience 3D light tomography test scans and try InfraVis Sweden VR glasses to see proteins up close. Notable guests stopped by, including Birgitte Wederking from the Greater Copenhagen EU Office and Pia Kinhult who represents European Spallation Source ERIC in HALRIC's Joint-Steering Committee, as well as Ulrika Hallengren who has been involved with MAX IV Laboratory. Thanks for great dialogues with our project ambassadors Emanuel Larsson, Lund University and Jakob Øster, Rigshospitalet! Some had arrived on a bus-tour from Malmö to Folkemødet organized by Øresundsinstituttet. The day-trip aimed to bridge the knowledge gap between Swedish and Danish politics and organizations and CEO, Johan Wessman said to News Øresund "We believe too few Swedes take the chance to attend Folkemødet to learn more about Danish politics and organizations. For cooperation across Øresund to develop, we must get to know each other better between Denmark and Sweden." 🎤 Panel Debate on EU Opportunities: At Friday's panel session organized by Europabevægelsen, the consensus was that while businesses may not inherently love the EU, they can certainly appreciate the opportunities it presents. Interreg Program Director Magnus Schönning emphasized how EU funds should create value and address societal challenges, highlighting the crucial role businesses can play with minimal costs. Anette Steenberg, CEO at Medicon Valley Alliance showcased the power of cross-border collaboration in projects like HALRIC, ReproUnion and DiaUnion, asserting that "Two heads are better than one, and we can achieve more together," with reference to MVA's support of both the Danish and Swedish life science ambitions and the benefits of collaborating in the light of global competition. The debate also included insights from Per Clausen, a member of the European Parliament from Enhedslisten, and Anne Hedeager Bentsen from Danish Industry, discussing the need for easier access to funds and better support for businesses! Thanks to Interreg for the fantastic collaboration before, during and after Folkemødet🙏: Lise Riis Moltved, Andreas Zilcken, Sofie Håkansson, Lone Hylander, Magnus Schönning, Jane Guldbrand-Hansen #HALRIC #Interreg #EU #Collaboration #overgransen #Folkemødet #fmdk

Fredag på Folkemødet har været fyldt med spændende møder og mennesker i €URO-TELTET (G7). Her er nogle af højdepunkterne: 🔹 Undersøgelse om EU's fremtid: Sammen med Interreg Deutschland-Danmark modtog vi et væld af værdifulde svar. Tak til alle, der bidrog! Din stemme er vigtig for at forme fremtiden. 🔹 Drop-in rådgivning om EU-midler: Mange interesserede kom forbi for at høre vores rådgivere Lone Hylander, Sofie Håkansson og Andreas Zilcken om at søge EU-midler. 🔹 HALRIC Hanseatic Life Science Research Infrastructure Consortium præsenterede, hvordan man kan se nærmere på proteiner i 3D, faciliteret af Emanuel Larsson. Tak til Medicon Valley Alliance og Mette Bach Dyremose. Også tak for besøget til Pia Kinhult. 🔹 Fredagens debat hos Europabevægelsen: Emnet var, hvorvidt virksomheder kan elske EU. En livlig diskussion med mange interessante perspektiver. Tak til alle deltagere for deres indsigt: Anette Steenberg, Magnus Schönning, Jens Kristian Lütken, Anne Hedeager Bentsen og Per Clausen fra Enhedslisten. 🔹 Tip en 13'er quiz: Vi fik mange sjove og interessante svar på vores quiz om Danmark, Sverige og Tyskland - og fundet dagens vinder. Vi ser nu frem til lørdagens afslutning på Folkemødet. Håber at se jer i €URO-TELTET! #Folkemødet2024 #FM24 #Interreg #Collaboration #Innovation #EU #Community

In May this HALRIC pilot project kicked off with complementary expertise across Hamburg, Lund, Copenhagen and Aarhus. The focus is on the ion homeostasis target ClC‐1 that is essential for human health and highly attractive in the treatment of for example autoimmune and neuromuscular diseases. Recent structural breakthroughs by the Gourdon and Tidow laboratories at Lund University and Universität Hamburg will be utilized synergistically with solution scattering techniques at MAX IV Laboratory and DESY, as well as ILL with the potential for future usage of European Spallation Source ERIC. Positive results from the pilot project has the potential to assist ongoing development of therapeutic intervention of severe disorders conducted by NMD Pharma A/S in Aarhus, and to permit downstream similar initiatives to improve human health. As the industry partner in the pilot project, the compounds of NMD Pharma will also be studied at the Research Infrastructures, in order to gain knowledge of how the compounds interact with the ClC-1 channel. This underlines the benefit of connecting with industry to strengthen the combined innovation journey for the involved pilot project partners #overgransen in the Öresund-Hamburg Region💥 The work will aim for a spatial understanding of how the so‐called CBS domains orchestrate the ClC‐1 function via a phenomenon referred to as ‘slow‐gating’, thereby shedding light on the basic principles and determinants that govern ClC‐1. It will include the use of #SAXS/SANS solution scattering to directly evaluate the conformational changes of the CBS domains, or to guide cryo‐EM experiments at SciLifeLab and the Danish National Facility #EMBION. Nicholas Kelly, Henning Tidow, Pontus Gourdon, Viktoria Bågenholm, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH Find out more about this and other #HALRICPilotProjects👇

It's the last day of an exciting experiment at European XFEL in Hamburg using the SPB/SFX SASE1 instrument. We are making progress and hope to return to continue our studies. We acknowledge the team for their great hospitality and helpfulness, and of course, EU XFEL for providing us with beamtime. This project is within the framework of the HALRIC Hanseatic Life Science Research Infrastructure Consortium. Adam Round, PhD Henrik Vinther Sørensen Diogo Melo @Robin Schubert Dr. Abhisakh Sarma @Chan Kim Marco Kloos Ann Terry @Felix Engelmann Oskar Svensson MAX IV Laboratory Lunds universitet European XFEL

Are you at Folkemødet? If yes, come and meet HALRIC next [email protected] in the €URO-TENT (G7). You can experience a test scan using visible light-tomography in 3D, facilitated by Emanuel Larsson, and try on a pair of VR glasses from InfraVis to almost touch a protein structure! We hope it will inspire conversations with Emanuel, Jakob Øster, Rigshospitalet and Mette Bach Dyremose about new imaging technologies in Life Science and how HALRIC is working to bring new users from hospitals and industry into collaborative pilot projects with HALRIC partner universities and unique and large-scale Research Infrastructures. AND don't miss 'How companies can fall in love with the EU!' Friday@14. On the panel are Magnus Schönning, Interreg Program Director - Anette Steenberg, CEO at Medicon Valley Alliance together with high level politicians. It is organised by Europabevægelsen (J20). Already Thursday@16 Mette will be warming up with a 5-minute peptalk about #HALRIC, when #Interreg have invited projects they support to showcase their cross border collaborations #overgransen Lone Hylander, Sofie Håkansson, Andreas Zilcken, Lise Riis Moltved, Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak, Interreg Deutschland-Danmark. More info about these events at #Folkemødet2024 (in Danish): Overview from MVA: https://lnkd.in/dNyvjKBF Overview from Interreg: https://lnkd.in/d5ugYFQz

Make the invisible visible with synchrotrons💥 One of several headlines from last week's workshop on biomedical imaging that gathered experts from all over Europe. Lots of exciting science was presented, as well as the cross-border collaborations and connections, which have developed since HALRICs preceding projects HALOS and MAX4ESSFUN. There was consensus that the future is bright for biomedical imaging, but the concluding panel talk also pointed to the need for benchmark projects to show how much more there is to learn!💡 And this is where HALRIC is pleased to contribute with a continuous flow of pilot projects, as highlighted by Kajsa M Paulsson, Lund University in her introductory talk along with the importance for the ÖKS-Hamburg region to stay connected with other facilities to develop the Research Infrastructure expertise across Europe🧩 Thanks to Isabel Gonçalves for bringing a strong clinical perspective to the agenda and explaining why synchrotron-based technologies are an excellent tool with very high-resolution to assess plaque structure. A further take-home message from Isabel was that multidisciplinary expertise is essential to move forward📢 And here we would of course like to highlight that Isabel is in fact involved in the very first cross-border #HALRIC pilot project, offering insights into cellular processes and disease mechanisms of atheroslcerosis, which is the major cause of cardiovascular disease. Find out more about this project between Skånes universitetssjukhus (Skåne University Hospital), Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH, BioMS Sweden https://lnkd.in/epxch3vf As Maria Sundh, Medicon Valley Alliance pointed out in her LinkedIn post from the day, we look forward to seeing how continued and expanded use of Research Infrastructures will lead to more groundbreaking discoveries and strengthened healthcare: https://lnkd.in/edVT9TDk The workshop was organised by LINXS Institute of advanced Neutron and X-ray Science and credit goes to Naomi Pagh Abudi for the great group photo and to Daniel Sarabi for the work behind the scenes🤩 Martin Bech, Selma Maric, Rajmund Mokso, Hanna Isaksson, Tim Salditt, Marco Stampanoni, Marjolein Thunnissen, Tim Dyrby, Emanuel Larsson, Jakob Øster #LifeScience #ResearchInfrastructure #Xrays #Collaboration