Early career biochemist receives UCMR Young Investigator grant

Porträtt på Max Renner

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This is an incredible boost early-on and will give us a running start setting up a team here in Umeå

“Receiving the grant is an honour and an affirmation of the importance of studying respiratory viruses such as human metapneumovirus (HMPV). It is an incredible driver to see that peers recognize the potential of our work and I am excited to build on collaboration opportunities and draw upon resources within UCMR, while also contributing to others’ research with our structural biology know-how,” says Max Renner, Assistant professor at Department of Chemistry, Umeå University.

UCMR plays an active role in attracting applications from promising researchers in the early stage of their career and provides a promising environment for cutting-edge research. Early career researchers interested in playing an active role in the UCMR community is the target for the UCMR Young Investigator grant call.

For Max Renner, the award is an important milestone, not only in terms of funding but also in terms of opening up further opportunities and increased visibility.

“It will allow me to recruit an additional researcher and provide a good scientific environment with ample resources. This is an incredible boost early-on and will give us a running start setting up a team here in Umeå. For our research it means that we can tackle larger and bolder projects,” he says.

In brief, the research in Max Renner lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of how viruses take over our cells, replicate their viral genetic material, and make new infectious viral particles. They use a variety of approaches including biochemistry, cell biology, and high-resolution electron microscopy at cryogenic temperatures.

“The state-of-the-art infrastructure in Umeå allows us to zoom in on how components of viruses interact with one-another or with the building blocks of our cells at unprecedented resolutions. By unravelling the complexities of these interactions, we aim to better understand infection and also hope to identify sites of vulnerability that are amenable to intervention”.

The postdoc recruited with this award will focus on how respiratory viruses are assembled from sub-viral building block within infected cells which is a critical component of our overall research objective.