SciLifeLab scientists, Alexey Amunts (Stockholm University), Coordinating PI of the SciLifeLab Research Community Program Biology of Molecular Interactions, and Petter Brodin (Karolinska Institutet), head of the SciLifeLab Mass Cytometry facility, have been selected as EMBO Young Investigators.

The prestigious four-year program identifies some of Europe’s promising young researchers and provides academic, practical and financial support to help them realize their potential as world-class researchers.

“Each of the new Young Investigators has demonstrated their ability to carry out research at the highest level, and it is a pleasure to welcome them to the EMBO community,” says EMBO Director Maria Leptin. “The first years as an independent researcher can be a particularly challenging time in a scientist’s career, and we look forward to supporting the researchers in establishing their independent careers.”

The Young Investigators are selected by EMBO based on the quality of their scientific work. The selected group leaders receive financial and training benefits as well as new opportunities for collaborations and access to core facilities at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Benefits also include training in leadership skills, responsible research practices and mentorship from a senior scientist in the community of EMBO Members.

About Amunts lab
Amunts’ lab research focuses on the fundamental question of how bioenergetic units that fuel life become to be. The lab members employ structural, functional and evolutionary analysis to study macromolecules that shape biological systems in mitochondria and chloroplast. Using electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) the researchers have determined the atomic structures of some of the most complex multi protein assemblies driving key cellular processes, including chlororibosomes, mitoribosomes, photosystems and ATP synthase. The revealed  molecular  mechanisms, activities and regulation illuminate how different cells obtain their energy and maintain the bioenergetic balance.
The research is supported by the ERC, Wallenberg Foundation, SSF Future Leaders Program and Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award.

About Brodin lab
Brodin’s lab is working to understand human immune system variation between individuals and within individuals over time. The research aims to identify the factors that determine this variation and in particularly their influence early in life as they imprint on the developing immune system and shape its composition and function for with long-term consequences. To understand systems-level behaviors in the human immune system, the researchers develop and apply novel experimental and data analysis tools that allow for comprehensive analyses of blood samples using mass cytometry, cell sorting and sequencing-based approaches. This leads to a comprehensive characterization of the system, allowing to understand its regulation. By combining the immune system analyses with microbiome analyses, biometrics and individual exposure data, Brodin’s lab is hoping to understand how various influences shape immunity in humans. Petter Brodin is also a medical doctor at the Karolinska University Hospital, and Wallenberg clinical fellow. He has recently been awarded with the Hagberg Prize for medicine.