Description of the research project

The ribosome is the cellular molecule that carries out protein synthesis in all living organisms. Protein synthesis is the fundamental process by which the genetic code in the genome is read and translated into proteins, and many biological systems and reactions depend on a precise control of this process. However, our understanding of how the organism regulates protein synthesis at the cellular level is still sparse.

The goal of this research project is to use structural biology methods to investigate how various signal molecules and receptors influence the ribosome function. These studies will illuminate how regulation and localisation of the ribosome – and thereby protein synthesis – is used by the organism to control areas such as the establishment of long-term memory, general cell development and tissue differentiation.

Researcher in France for 10 years

Lasse Jenner has been a researcher in Strasbourg, France, for the past 10 years. He was originally educated at Aarhus University, where he completed his PhD at the Department of Molecular and Structural Biology with Associate Professor Jens Nyborg as supervisor. With a grant from the Lundbeck Foundation, Dr Jenner was able to continue his postdoctoral studies at this department for another three years.

He was subsequently employed as a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (IGBMC) in Strasbourg. After three years of research at the IGBMC, Dr Jenner was awarded a young researcher (Jeunes Chercheurs) grant from INSERM in France to continue his research at the same place for a further three years, after which he took up a position as associate researcher (Chargé de Recherche 1).

-       “It’s a great honour and recognition of my work to be awarded a Hallas-Møller Scholarship,” says Dr Jenner. “And this grant will enable me to return to one of the leading research groups in structural biology in Europe,” he adds.

Lasse Bohl Jenner takes up his new position as of 1 September 2012.

Several from the research group with a Hallas-Møller Scholarship

Dr Jenner will be affiliated with the Aarhus department’s Section for Structural Biology, headed by Professor Poul Nissen. Several researchers from the same group also received this prestigious scholarship (or the Novo Nordic Foundation Senior Research Scholarship for recruiting researchers from abroad): Associate Professor Morten Kjeldgaard, Professor Poul Nissen, Associate Professor Ditlev Brodersen (from Cambridge, UK), Associate Professor Rune Hartmann (from Cleveland, Ohio, USA) and Associate Professor Gregers Rom Andersen.

About the Hallas-Møller Scholarship

The Novo Nordisk Foundation awards up to two Hallas-Møller Scholarships a year to cover running expenses and the salary of the scholar. The scholarships run for five years, and are awarded to senior researchers in medicine and natural science, primarily in biomedical research, clinical research and basic biological research.

Applicants for the scholarship are expected to have carried out documented, independent research that is promising and of international excellence. The award of the scholarship is expected to accelerate the possibility of a research breakthrough.

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More information

Dr Lasse Bohl Jenner
Département de Biologie et de Génomique Structurales
Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire
Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, 67400, France
Mobile +33 06 75 89 48 87 - lasse@igbmc.fr

Text and translation: Lasse Bohl Jenner and Lisbeth Heilesen