A letter of intent was recently signed on establishing this Centre for Organelle Research (Core), which will be affiliated to the university’s biological chemistry section.
The aim is to increase understanding of the cellular functions of these tiny bodies, and how they are integrated in various plant and animal cells.
“Organelles can be described as mini-cells within cells, which live their own lives,” explains Dr Møller, who heads the department of mathematics and natural science at the UiS.
Research into these units could help to produce proteins and to create antibodies which can assist in the diagnosis of illnesses such as cancer.
“Core will be a dynamic international institute, with six-eight permanent research teams made up of professors and fellows,” says Dr Møller.
Response
Since the idea of a centre was aired in international fora earlier this autumn, researchers world-wide have given a positive response to Dr Møller.
He has already received enquiries from specialists in the USA, the UK, Sweden and Switzerland who are keen to work with model organisms such as yeast, plant and animal cells on the basis of genetics and molecular biology.
“We plan to appoint young and hungry researchers with very strong CVs,” says Dr Møller. “We also envisage foreign specialists spending sabbaticals at Core.
“They’ll enjoy conditions which encourage them to return for new projects. In other words, Stavanger is going be the place to pursue organelle research.”
He thereby has very ambitious goals for Core, which is due to be operational within two-three years, and also wants to involve the International Research Institute of Stavanger (Iris) and Stavanger University Hospital.
That would allow the centre to draw on more of the research expertise available in Rogaland county and exploit the applied side of organelle research.
Other Core partners will be the University of Umeå in Sweden, Norway’s University of Tromsø, the University of Turku in Finland, the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and Copenhagen’s Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University.
Dr Møller held a meeting about Core in November to define how collaboration will work and which research areas will be covered, and to recruit a scientific advisory board.
Background
When Dr Møller joined the UiS in the spring of 2006, he brought with him an international research background. This includes a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Leeds and experience from Rockefeller University and the University of Leicester.
He also has the honour of being Norway’s only Young Investigator in the European Molecular Biology Organisation (Embo), which embraces the leaders in this field and has no less than 41 Nobel Prize winners among its current members.
Recognition
The plans for a research centre accordingly rest on the national and international recognition accorded to the UiS for its scientific work.
“We’re a world leader in organelle studies,” says Dr Møller. “We publish the largest number of articles on such issues as organelle division, and must refuse many requests to participate in seminars and conferences.”
This recognition has found expression in a number of awards, and not least in funds from the Research Council of Norway and its national programme for functional genome research (Fuge).
Dr Møller received NOK 7.1 million from the Research Council through Fuge this summer for a project on dissecting the process of plastid division in higher plants using functional genomic approaches.
“Without this grant, it wouldn’t be possible to establish Core,” he says. “We now want to cooperate with the University of Oslo and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim on a Fuge platform where we characterise how proteins are assembled in living cells.
“We can also get contributions from the University of Tromsø. That puts us on the ‘national team’ and gives us greater weight with the Research Council.”
He adds that the leadership of the UiS has supported the Core plan by making a financial contribution to the necessary preliminary work.
Strong
The UiS has built up a strong position in biological chemistry over recent years, and this subject has been seen as a spearhead since it became a PhD field in the autumn of 2005.
In an international context, the university is regarded as strong in such areas as biological rhythms – better known as the biological clock.
In addition come DNA repair and the nitrogen cycle in micro-organisms and plants, as well as organelle research in different organisms.
Researchers in this area collaborate closely with a number of foreign universities, and all their work is based on such international cooperation.
“This allows us to complement each other in various fields,” explains Dr Møller. “We need to look at what’s happening elsewhere, and we need new ideas.
“By acquiring outstanding partners, we can increase the pace of our own research. That provides mutual respect, and we create a network which gives us greater weight with the Research Council and the EU when research funds are being handed out.”
He emphasises that it makes sense to team up with other researchers.
“There’s always strong competition between different research teams. It’s better to be in contact with your competitors than to operate as a lone wolf.
“So we’ve concluded cooperation deals with teams working on organelle research in Japan, the USA and Europe. Even if you can beat them, join them. It’s fun.”
Text: Egil Rugland
Photo: Elisabeth Tønnessen
