Jakob Nilsson

Jakob Nilsson says: Human health depends on our cells’ ability to respond to changes in the environment and the ability of cells to communicate within and with each other. Such cell signaling and communication depend on a chemical process whereby enzymes add or remove a so-called phosphate group from a protein. Thus, addition and removal of phosphate groups from proteins are fundamental signaling mechanisms that are often deregulated in human disease.  Understanding how the enzymes that add or remove phosphates are regulated will reveal fundamental insight into cell function and will provide a new perspective on human diseases. In this project, we will use new methods we have developed to identify and characterize how the enzymes that remove phosphates are regulated. We will use sophisticated cell biological and biochemical methods to understand how these new regulatory mechanisms impact on cellular function to potentially uncover novel disease-causing mechanisms.

Jakob Nilsson is Professor and Group leader at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen.