7 researchers at Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University, have just received DKK 38 million in total from the Independent Research Fund Denmark for research projects on green transition. 6 of these grants have been awarded to iNANO associated researchers, which amounts to DKK 35.5 million.

With the grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, main applicant Poul Nissen and colleagues from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and iNANO as well as partners at the Department of Biomedicine and the Department of Engineering will be able to establish an infrastructure for Cryo-Electron Tomography (ICE-T), which will also be made available to other institutions and industry. With this apparatus, molecular details can be explored directly in cells.

Congratulations to Professor Liv Hornekær and all the other 15 outstanding scientists who have been elected as new members of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. They will enter into a year-long tradition, and follow in the footsteps of famous former members such as Niels Bohr and H.C. Ørsted, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by an imbalance in the brain resulting from alpha-synuclein, a small unstable protein that misfolds and accumulates in clusters and clumps that destroy the brain cells of people with the disease. Researchers from Aarhus University have now discovered that extracts from Damask roses and Koroneiki olives can prevent aggregates from forming. Future research will show whether one or more substances causes the beneficial effects, so that researchers can extract the beneficial compounds and avoid those with side-effects.

Congratulations to Henrik Birkedal, who on 1st October 2020, was appointed as Professor at Department of Chemistry. Birkedal has been employed at Department of Chemistry as Associate Professor since August 2009, and is heading a research group at iNANO focusing on biological and bioinspired materials.