2012 © Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM
Chemical biology for cancer research
Background
Krister Wennerberg received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Uppsala University in Sweden. His graduate studies were completed in Staffan Johansson's group where he studied β1 integrins and the cytoplasmic domain of the β1 subunit. In 2000, he began as a postdoctoral researcher jointly between the laboratories of Keith Burridge and Channing Der at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA where he worked on the regulation of small G-proteins and developed activity-based functional proteomics approaches to study these events. In 2004, he took a research and development scientist position at Cytoskeleton, Inc a small biotech company in Denver, CO, USA. In 2006, he moved to a group leader position at the Drug Discovery Division of Southern Research Institute, a not-for-profit research institute in Birmingham, AL, USA, where he managed an internal drug discovery program and lead an assay development group. In this role, he was involved in most aspects of early drug discovery, from target identification and validation to assay development, high throughput screening, hit-to-lead and lead optimization. In 2009, he joined FIMM and is leading a research group as well as coordinating the
Chemical Biology Unit of the FIMM Technology Centre,
Biocenter Finland Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology (DDCB) network, and
Technologies work package of the EU-OPENSCREEN FP7 ESFRI project.
Research Program
Our research group at FIMM uses chemical biology approaches to gain fundamental novel understanding of cancers and other major human diseases. Our overall goal is to generate novel biological information and molecular probes that ultimately can be used to develop new treatments. Malignant cancer characteristics such as invasiveness, metastasis, and relapse-causing regeneration are poorly controlled by current cancer therapeutics. Interestingly, regenerative and cancer stem cell-like properties appear to be associated with many of the same signaling events that also control invasiveness and metastasis. The Wennerberg group studies mechanisms of cancer invasiveness, EMT and regeneration of cancer cells with the aim of discovering and gaining better understanding of novel potential therapeutic targets. We are currently pursuing three major directions within this context. In general, we use chemical and molecular biology approaches to better understand critical molecular events that drive and sustain EMT and cancer cell regeneration and ultimately how these events may be targeted in new therapeutic approaches. For more detailed information, please see the Projects page.
Immunofluorescence staining of the breast cancer derived HCC1937 cell line showing expression of E-cadherin (green in top left overlay and bottom left) and actin (red in top left overlay and bottom right). The nuclei are stained blue in the top left overlay and top right.
Group Members
| Arjan van Adrichem | PhD Student |
arnoldus.adrichem[at]helsinki.fi |
| Sawan Kumar Jha | MSc Student | jha.sawankumar[at]helsinki.fi |
| Leena Karhinen | Postdoctoral Researcher | leena.karhinen[at]fimm.fi |
| Muntasir Mamun Majumder | PhD Student | muntasir.mamun[at]helsinki.fi |
| Tea Pemovska | PhD Student | tea.pemovska[at]helsinki.fi |
| Gretchen Repasky | Senior Researcher | gretchen.repasky[at]fimm.fi |
| Krister Wennerberg | Group Leader | krister.wennerberg[at]fimm.fi |
Reach our lab in person at Biomedicum 2, D205a or by phone at +358 9 191 25804 or +358 50 4156885.
Open positions in the Wennerberg group
We are always interested to receive inquiries from talented postdoctoral candidates and PhD or undergraduate students to work in the group. Please send your inquiry (including a cover letter describing your research ambitions and experience; and a CV including contact information for 2 references) to krister.wennerberg@fimm.fi.
The research in our group is supported by:
