Welcome from the Center Head

Welcome to the DynaMo Center - a Center of Excellence funded by the Danish National Research Foundation. The Center was initiated January 1, 2012. 

 

Although the cell is a busy place, the cellular components are able to find the way to their final destination. But how? And ultimately, how are responses to internal and external cues coordinately regulated within a multi-cellular organism? To address these challenges, we have to direct our way of thinking towards dynamic networks with interconnection between RNA, protein and metabolite levels, and we need to have a powerful model system. This is provided by the defense metabolites, glucosinolates, within the plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. A. thaliana is a systems biology model plant given its extensive ‘omics data and tools, natural variation and mutant collections.

 

Glucosinolates are ideal model metabolites for several reasons. All biosynthetic genes are known, key regulators have been identified, RNA- and miRNA-mediated regulation is involved, cellular transporters are partly known, and there is a proven connection that sensing of metabolites controls transcription. This shows that the system has a highly coordinated regulatory network that spans all molecular levels simultaneously.

At the Center, our goal is to uncover the molecular interactions facilitating dynamic biological processes in a multi-cellular organism through synergistic research activities.
Ultimately, this will allow us to understand how higher order of structure in biology is obtained which enables a multicellular organism to function, and to sense and respond to the environment.

We hope to attract highly talented and competent young scientists to be trained in holistic thinking and cutting-edge technologies within the field of systems and cell biology, in a creative and dynamic research environment. The center will run for 6 years with the possibility for extension for an additional 4 years.

If you are interested in joining the DynaMo Center or forming a collaboration please contact us!

 

Thanks for visiting,
Barbara Ann Halkier