The Nordic EMBL Partnership warmly congratulates NCMM group leaders Dr. Gözen, Dr. Mathelier, and Dr. Sekulic on their successful evaluations. 

Like the three other Nordic EMBL Partnership nodes, NCMM follows the EMBL model for group leader recruitment and review, meaning that each group is evaluated at the end of their first five year period at the Centre. A successful evaluation means that the research group and the group leader’s appointment is extended for a further four years, allowing them to continue with their research programme at NCMM for a total of nine years.

The three groups’ evaluations were based on written dossiers prepared by the group leaders, letters of assessment from external scientific experts within their respective research fields, alongside presentations delivered to the SAB. Due to the ongoing restrictions imposed by coronavirus, the 2021 SAB meeting took place online.

Commenting on the successful evaluations, Professor Janna Saarela, Director of NCMM said:

“I would like to warmly congratulate all three group leaders for a well-deserved extension of their groups at NCMM. They, and their scientific contributions, will be a strong asset to the Centre for the years to come”.

Dr Irep Gözen: head of the Bionanotechnology and Membrane Systems Group

The group’s research programmes aim to understand the biophysical and materials-science aspects of complex biological problems involving lipid membranes. Dr Gözen comments: 

“I am happy to see that our efforts have paid off and our research has been assessed to be original, coherent and top-quality. In the next period, I hope for more of our interesting research findings to be published, our synergistic collaborations to continue, and our outreach activities and fun outside the laboratory to continue”. 

Dr Nikolina Sekulic: head of the Structural Biology and Chromatin Group

The group focuses on trying to understand the molecular determinants that ensure chromosomes are equally distributed in daughter cells each time cells divide. Commenting on her successful evaluation Dr. Sekulic said: 

“I am thrilled that our group has been extended for a further four years. I would like to thank all past and present members of our group for their hard work and devotion which has made this possible. I am looking forward to continuing working at NCMM and to continue advancing our projects through local and international collaborations”.

Dr Anthony Mathelier: head of the Computational Biology and Gene Regulation Group

Using computational methods, the group aims to better understand the molecular mechanisms that underly transcriptional dysregulation in cancers. 

Dr Mathelier comments:

“We are thrilled that our group has been renewed for four more years at NCMM. We hope that our future scientific endeavours will benefit our capacity to study the mechanisms by which gene expression can be disrupted in cancers. To achieve this goal, we will conduct basic research that will fuse experimental approaches with the parallel development of computational methods to patient samples. This approach has the potential to shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying transcriptional dysregulation in cancers and deliver new knowledge in cancer research that will benefit cancer patients in the future”.

“I would like to acknowledge here the fantastic contributions from the people in the group and our collaborators over the years. They bring together diverse scientific backgrounds and cultures and their dedication and excitement for science has made our past successes possible and will allow for more to come.” 

NCMM congratulates Drs Gözen, Sekulic, and Mathelier. The Centre looks forward to celebrating more of their future successes as they continue to develop their research programmes at NCMM.  

You can learn more about the NCMM SAB here: https://www.med.uio.no/ncmm/english/about/organization/scientific-advisory-board/