NEWS Ruth Palmer, who up until 2014 was professor of Molecular Genetics at Umeå University, has been awarded the Göran Gustafsson Prize 2016 for her significant discoveries of function and control of an important tyrosine kinase controlling cell signals and cell development.
After several studies on kinases – enzymes that transfer a phosphate group to a protein in a cell and, hence, controls its cell activity in humans – Ruth Palmer began studying the well-known fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The tyrosine kinase receptor ALK, Anaplastic lymphoma kinase, and its developmental biology role was characterized in a series of studies published in several prominent journals including Nature, Development and Cell.
The study published in Nature identified a protein activating ALK in the fruit fly. It was previously known that a malfunctioning ALK protein in a human being could lead to certain types of cancer; for instance lymphoma, neuroblastoma and lung cancer. In recent years, Ruth Palmer has turned from studies on fruit flies to studies on humans and foremost on how mutations in patients affect the receptor properties.
ALK is a receptor with the function to for instance catch and transmit signals to surrounding nerve cells, and hence it is well-suited for medical treatment of, in particular, certain types of lung cancer. Recently, Ruth Palmer’s research group established that two proteins in humans, which have been found to activate a closely related receptor, also can activate the ALK receptor. Apart from her ALK studies on humans, Ruth Palmer also performs studies on mice models, for instance in the purpose of testing the chances of blocking ALK signals.
Ruth Palmer was professor of Molecular Genetics at Umeå University from 2010 until 2014 and was thereafter installed as professor of Cell Biology at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. Each prize winner is awarded an amount of SEK 250,000 and SEK 4.5 million as a three-year research grant.
Read more about Ruth Palmers’ research
Read more about the Royal Academy of Sciences (KVA)
Ruth Palmer, University of GothenburgPhone: +46 31-786 39 06
Email: ruth.palmer@gu.se
Volodymyr Mazorchuk, Professor at Uppsala University; Felix Ryde, Professor at KTH; Xavier Crispin, Professor at Linköping University; Ruth Palmer, Professor at the University of Gothenburg; Olle Melander, Professor at Lund University.
Kaj Nyström, Professor at Uppsala University; Egor Babaev, Professor at KTH; Richard Neutze Associate Professor at the University of Gothenburg; Mattias Jakobsson, Professor at Uppsala University and Erik Ingelsson, Professor at Uppsala University.
Emmanuelle Charpentier, Professor at Umeå University; Anna-Karin Tornberg, Professor at KTH; Johan Åkerman, Professor at the University of Gothenburg; Per Hammarström, Professor at Linköping University and Fredrik Bäckhed, Professor at the University of Gothenburg.
Editor: Anna Lawrence