Project funded through prestigious programme: Norwegian researchers awarded major grant to uncover how cells remember starvation
A team of researchers led by Jorrit Enserink from Oslo University Hospital and Helene Knævelsrud from the University of Oslo has been awarded 40 million NOK from the Research Council of Norway to investigate a fundamental biological question: Can cells remember being starved, and does that memory change how they behave in the future?
The project, called Total Recall (Learn–Recall–Forget: Causal Circuits of Starvation Memory for Population Coherence in Homeostasis and Development), was funded through the prestigious "Toppforskere" programme, which supports research teams with the potential to become world-leading in their field.
Every living organism faces periods when food is scarce. When that happens, cells switch from growing to recycling, breaking down their own components to survive. This recycling process, known as autophagy, must be tightly coordinated across millions of cells. If some cells respond too slowly or not at all, tissues can be damaged and development can go awry.
The Total Recall team has made a remarkable observation: Cells don't simply react to starvation as if each episode were new, but they learn from experience. After a first bout of starvation, cells activate their survival programme faster and more synchronously the next time around, in a manner strikingly similar to how repeated studying strengthens human memory. Longer initial exposure produces stronger recall, similar to the well-known benefit of spaced repetition in learning by the human brain.
This cellular memory may be far more important than previously recognised. In tissues and developing organisms, the ability of cells to mount a coordinated, well-timed response to nutrient stress is critical for healthy growth and organ formation. Memory could be what keeps millions of individual cells acting in concert rather than drifting into disorganised, potentially harmful responses. When cellular memory fails, or when cells cannot properly forget outdated information and regain flexibility, the consequences may include developmental defects, impaired tissue function, and disease.
Yet despite its significance, cellular memory of nutrient stress remains poorly understood. It is not known which molecules store these memories, how they are recalled, or how cells eventually erase them to stay adaptable. Total Recall aims to answer all three questions. The research begins in yeast, where individual cells can be tracked with precision, and extends into fruit flies and zebrafish to test whether the same memory principles operate in developing animal tissues.
Total Recall brings together expertise in molecular biology, genetics, developmental biology, and statistics across Norwegian and international institutions, and will train a new generation of researchers at all career levels.
Links:
Press release from the Ministry of Education and Research (Kunnskapsdepartement):
Banebrytande forskarar får 253 millionar kroner (regjeringen.no)
Cancer Molecular medicine research group, headed by Jorrit Enserink
Autophagy regulation in development and disease research group, headed by Helene Knævelsrud