Collaborations
Our research would not have been possible without extensive collaborations with leading national and international research groups. Some of the key ongoing collaborations are listed below.
European Science Foundation project on "Tracking of phosphoinositide pools". This is a project under the EuroMEMBRANE programme under the EUROCORES scheme of ESF. The focus of this project is the elucidation of dynamic processes in phosphoinositide signalling during cell migration and changes in cell-cell contacts. The other principal investigators of this project are Matthias Wymann (Basel, coordinator), Carsten Schultz (Heidelberg), Dorus Gadella (Amsterdam) and Karl-Eric Magnusson (Linköping). The project will last from September 2009 to December 2012.
FUGE project on "Membrane trafficking in immunity and tumour suppression". This is a project under the FUGE (functional genomics) programme of the Research Council of Norway and is a collaboration with Terje Espevik at the Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Kirsten Sandvig at Centre for Cancer Biomedicine, and Oddmund Bakke at Centre for Immune Regulation. The project will last from 1st January 2008 until 31st December 2010. Its aim is to identify lipids, proteins and pathways that regulate the intracellular trafficking of immunity receptors and growth factor receptors. Various functional genomic approaches will be employed, with special emphasis on advanced molecular imaging methods.
Signaling in neural stem cells: Implications for regenerative medicine and tumour biology. This is a project under the stem cell research programme of the Research Council of Norway. In addition to our group, the project involves the groups of Stefan Krauss (coordinator), Joel Glover and Iver Langmoen. The project lasts from 2007 to 2011.
Centre for Cancer Biomedicine (CCB). This is a centre of excellence awarded by the Research Council of Norway in December 2006. It will last from 1st September 2007 until 31st August 2017.
Cancer Stem Cell Innovation Centre (CAST). This is a centre for research-based innovation, supported by the Research Council of Norway, established in 2006. The centre project will last until 2014.
ENDOCYTE Research Training Network. This is a Research Training Network under the 6th EU framework programme and includes 12 laboratories from 8 countries. The project will last from 1st September 2006 to 31th August 2010 and is dedicated to the studies of the intracellular routes of growth factor signalling - from the plasma membrane to the nucleus - and their relevance for the regulation of growth factor function. PhD student Antonia Sagona is funded by the ENDOCYTE network. A collaboration with one of the participants of ENDOCYTE, prof. Ivan Dikic at the Goethe University of Frankfurt, recently resulted in the discovery that monoubiquitination negatively regulates the activity of ubiquitin-binding proteins.
FUGE project on "Protein Aggregation and Degradation in Aging and Disease". This is a project under the FUGE (functional genomics) programme of the Research Council of Norway and is a collaboration with prof. Terje Johansen at the University of Tromsø. The project will last from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2009 and concerns the molecular mechanisms of degradation of intracellular protein aggregates - and their implications for diseases. The project is an extension of a previous collaboration that identified the ubiquitin-binding scaffolding protein p62 as an important link between protein aggregates and the autophagic machinery.
The functions of Rab5 and PI 3-kinase in endocytic membrane trafficking. Our long-standing collaboration with prof. Marino Zerial at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden has led to several important discoveries, including the identifications of Rabaptin-5 and EEA1 as Rab5 effectors in endosome fusion, and of KIF-16B as a PtdIns(3)P effector in endosome motility.
Domain identifications and bioinformatical studies of endocytic regulator proteins. Since 1996 we have been collaborating with prof. Rein Aasland at the University of Bergen, an expert in this type of bioinformatical analyses. The discoveries of the FYVE finger and the GLUE domain have been among the highlights of our collaboration so far.
Endocytosis of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptors. We are collaborating with prof. Inger Helene Madshus and Dr. Espen Stang at the National Hospital in Oslo, who are specialists in studies of this pathway. Together we have found that Cbl-mediated ubiquitination is required for migration of EGF receptors into clathrin-coated pits at the plasma membrane, and that both clathrin-positive and -negative coats are involved in the endosomal sorting of EGF receptors.
Endocytic downregulation of the chemokine receptor CXCR4. We are collaborating with Dr. Adriano Marchese at the Loyola University of Chicago, a specialist in studies of this highly cancer relevant receptor. Together we have recently shown that endocytosed CXCR4 is downregulated through AIP4-mediated ubiquitination and interactions with Hrs in endosome membranes, and that the protein kinase CISK regulates this pathway.
Structural studies of the ubiquitin-recognizing machinery on endosome membranes. We are collaborating with prof. Soichi Wakatsuki at the Structural Biology Research Center in Ibaraki, Japan, a leading structural biologist. So far this collaboration has resulted in the crystal structures of the double sided UIM in complex with two ubiquitin molecules and the GLUE domain in complex with ubiquitin.
Sponsors
We thank the following sponsors for their generous contributions to our research:
The Research Council of Norway
EU
Human Frontier Science Program
The Hartmann Family Foundation
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