Dr. Andrea Puhar and her team at The Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) at Umeå University, discovered that gut cells sense harmful bacteria through the mechanical force exerted on their cell surface during bacterial invasion.

Abnormal epigenetic changes are observed in the development of multiple types of cancer. Researchers at NCMM, Norwegian node of the Nordic EMBL Partnership, explored the molecular mechanisms driving these processes.

Researchers from FIMM review how human genetics can inform the biology and epidemiology of COVID-19 by pinpointing causal mechanisms that explain why some individuals become more severely affected by the disease upon infection by SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Researchers from Umeå University, Sweden, analyzed all COVID-19 cases in Sweden from the start of the pandemic until May last year and determined that COVID-19 is a risk factor for deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and bleeding.

This study from researchers at MIMS and their collaborators, published in PloS Pathogens opens up new ways of selectively eradicating intracellular infection, proposing the inhibition of alaninol formation as a novel way of acting on infections caused by Salmonella.

Researchers from the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) and collaborators at Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) present a new computational platform, ScType, for cell profiling based single-cell RNA-sequencing data. They also demonstrate how it distinguishes between healthy and malignant cells, making it a versatile tool also for cancer applications. Open access through a web-based interface or as an open source R-package.

The female sex hormone oestrogen may have some protective effect against becoming seriously ill and dying in COVID-19, according to a registry study conducted at Umeå University. If so, this could explain why men are more likely than women to die during the pandemic.

Analysing molecular characteristics and their variation during lifestyle changes, by combining digital tools, classical laboratory tests and new biomolecular measurements, could enable individualised prevention of disease. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland published in the journal Cell Systems. The researchers show what a proactive healthcare model could comprise and how it could help in maintaining good health.

A group of Nordic researchers has discovered a novel immune deficiency disease affecting the regulation of the immune system. A mutation in the IKZF2 gene was identified in a Finnish family with recurrent infections and signs of immune overactivation. The results provide a basis for a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind activation and maturation of T cells and will aid the diagnosis of rare inborn errors of immunity. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.abe3454