Queensland University. Australia: An international multi-million dollar grant will support a University
of Queensland researcher’s attempts crack a 90-year old mystery around
the detailed biology of cancer cells. The Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) Laureate Research Grant will
provide $AUD8.6 million over seven years for Professor Lars Nielsen,
from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, to develop complex computational models of cell metabolism.
The research aims to understand why cancer cells and other
fast-growing cells produce lactate. This could lead to better and
cheaper cancer therapies.
UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj said the award
would allow Professor Nielson to bring together a team of researchers at
the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability in Copenhagen.
“This fellowship is granted to outstanding scientists undertaking
groundbreaking biomedicine and biotechnology research, and is one of
only two such competitive grants awarded worldwide each year ” Professor
Høj said.
“It will allow Professor Nielsen to extend the influence of his work,
which potentially will benefit people globally, by advancing knowledge
of cancer cell development.”
Professor Nielsen hopes to build a detailed model of how cancer cells
and other fast-growing cells produce lactic acid, an observation first
made by German biochemist Otto Warburg in 1924.
“Ultimately we are trying to understand the molecular and metabolic
differences between cancer cells and healthy cells,” Professor Nielsen
said.
“The same principles of protein expression and enzyme mechanism apply
to non-growing cells, such as fat and liver cells, and our model may
have even greater application to metabolic diseases, such as diabetes.”
Professor Nielsen’s work in modelling complex biological systems has
been applied to systems as diverse as bacteria, baker's yeast, sugarcane
and insects.
It has attracted research partnerships with companies including Dow,
Metabolix, Amyris, LanzaTech, Boeing, Virgin Australia and General
Electric.
“The NNF research laureate gives me the opportunity to revisit work
originally covered in my PhD in chemical engineering at UQ,” Professor
Nielsen said.
“It may even provide a solution to the problem that first attracted
me to a career as a research scientist: modelling the chemical and
complex sequences of biomechanical reactions within a human cell.
“When I came to Australia 25 years ago, I was planning to return to
Denmark to work with Novo Nordisk, actually. But then I ran into this
metabolism diagram and got very excited about trying to model it.”
“Everything in the cell is networked in a very complicated way. The
system is so sensitive to any change in parameters, that it just may
never be possible for us to compute all the possible interactions.
“The human cell has had millions of years to get these calculations right.”
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology director
Professor Peter Gray, said Professor Nielsen had established a
world-leading centre in the institute, with 50 staff in metabolic and
biochemical engineering.
“Receiving the NNF Laureate is a fitting recognition of the high
regard in which he is held by his colleagues around the world, and his
many significant contributions to the advancement of the metabolic
engineering research field.”
Professor Nielsen takes up his new role in June and will work at AIBN
until the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability moves
into its new facility at the Technical University of Denmark late next
year.