Mette Laursen from Aarhus University has received a grant of approx. DKK two million from the Danish Council for Independent Research. The grant will finance a two-year stay at EMBL Hamburg where she will carry out research into combating tuberculosis.

2014.03.25 | Anders Corydon Frederiksen

Thanks to the research funds from the Danish Council for Independent Research, Mette Laursen can travel to Hamburg to further develop her research competencies. Photo: Lisbeth Heilesen, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.

Mette Laursen’s area of research is the proteins that derive from the so-called mycobacteria and which can cause tuberculosis in humans. The Danish Council for Independent Research has now selected her together with 24 other research talents to receive financial support for their research - in the case of Mette Laursen in the form of a grant of more than two million DKK.

The research project that the Danish Council for Independent Research has granted funding for is to be conducted over a two-year period at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany.

“EMBL Hamburg has spent several years working on characterising different protein complexes like those that I will be studying. I look forward to learning from their considerable expertise and to further developing my research competencies,” says Mette Laursen.

Important research

It is thought that up to one third of the world’s population is infected with the mycobacteria which can cause tuberculosis. And figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that five to ten percent of these people develop active tuberculosis. Worldwide, approximately two million people die from tuberculosis annually.

The protein complexes that Mette Laursen is putting under the microscope are important for the growth and survival of the mycobacteria. The aim of her research is to describe the structure and function of these important protein complexes.

“I hope that my research can provide a better insight into how we can hamper the activity of the protein complexes. Ultimately it can hopefully contribute to the development of new medicines to combat tuberculosis,” explains Mette Laursen.

She received the postdoc grant as one of four researchers from Health. Read about all four Health researchers in the article ”Aarhus researchers receive grants from the Danish Council for Independent Research”.

The grant will be administered by Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine during Mette Laursen’s research stay in Hamburg.

Mette Laursen was born on 24 May, 1982 in Rimsø, North Djursland.

Further information

Postdoc, PhD Mette Laursen
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine and Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Centre for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease - PUMPkin
Direct tel: +45 8716 7579
ml@biophys.au.dk