Studying the molecular processes of cell division
Errors during cell division can lead to conditions such as cancer and infertility. Jan Ellenberg studies the molecular processes of cell division in order that these diseases can eventually be prevented and treated. Meet one of the new professors of Karolinska Institutet who will participate in this year's installation ceremony at Aula Medica on 3 October.
Text: Karin Tideström, for KI’s installation ceremony booklet 2024
What are you researching?
“My aim is to understand the molecular processes that drive how cells divide and pass on their genome to the next generation both in healthy cells and when cell division is impaired by disease. One focus area for my research group is how the genetic material is compacted and divided and how the cell nucleus is then recreated in the daughter cells. We do this using advanced imaging technologies, which allow us to study living cells in real-time with single-molecule resolution. We use advanced image analysis and machine learning to interpret the very large amounts of bioimage data our research generates.”
Why is this important?
“Cell division is a prerequisite for all life. Understanding more about the process of cell division is crucial to increasing our knowledge about life itself and how the body functions, and about what happens in various disease states.”
How do you hope that your findings will be used?
“The knowledge we gain from our research has the potential to be applied to various disease conditions that originate from faulty cell division, including cancer and infertility. With a better molecular understanding of what goes wrong during cell division, we’ll be better placed to eventually prevent and treat these conditions. In order to answer our research questions, we’re also developing new technologies that could prove important for future life science research in general. To make technology more accessible for the research community, I have also coordinated open-access infrastructure at the European level and am excited to lead SciLifeLab in Sweden.
About Jan Ellenberg
Professor of Cell Biology and Biophysics at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics.
Jan Ellenberg was born in 1967 in Hamburg. After his PhD work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, he started as faculty at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, where he has been head of the Unit for Cell Biology and Biophysics since 2010 and of the EMBL Imaging Centre since 2022. In June 2024, he was appointed director of the Swedish research infrastructure SciLifeLab. Jan Ellenberg was appointed Professor of Cell Biology and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet on July 1, 2024.