Anders Blomberg

Professor

Forskningsområde: Mikrobiologi
Tel: 031-786 2589
E-post: anders.blomberg@cmb.gu.se
Rumsnummer:  | Lundbergslaboratoriet

Prof. Anders Blomberg completed his PhD in Microbiology in 1988 at University of Gothenburg with the thesis "Osmoregulation and Osmotolerance in Yeast". During his PhD he spent a year in the laboratory of Prof. Duncan Brown, University of Wollongong, Australia. He now holds a position as professor in Functional Genomics. He was during the years 2001 - 2008 director of the national Research School in Genomics and Bioinformatics. He has currently 65 primary publications in international journals and runs a research group of roughly 10 members composed of a mix of PhD students and post-docs

Research interests

The research in the group of Blomberg runs along three main paths:

i) Mechanisms involved in the yeast stress response

Many functionally un-characterized proteins in Sacchaomyces cerevisiae are involved in cellular responses to environmental challenges like high salinity and oxidative stress. We have over the years applied various genome-wide technologies like proteomics and phenomics for the characterization of these stress responses. This has opened for studies on glycerol production/accumulation, the role of N-terminal acetylations and dihydroxyacetone toxicity. Currently the main focus is on signal transduction and in particular a protein complex of putative protein tyrosine phosphatases, the OCA proteins.

Selected publications:
Caesar, R., and Blomberg, A. (2004) The stress induced Tfs1p requires NatB mediated acetylation to inhibit carboxypeptidase Y and to regulate the protein kinase A pathway
Journal of Biological Chemistry, 279:38532-38543

Molin, M., Pilon, M., and Blomberg, A. (2007) Dihydroxyacetone-induced death is accompanied by advanced glycation end product formation in selected proteins of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Caenorhabditis elegans
Proteomics, 7:3764-3774 (featured article in that issue)

ii) Phenomics - developing methodologies for large-scale phenotypic profiling of yeasts

Phenotypic profiling of genetically defined strains, e.g. gene-deletions and fully sequenced natural isolates, is essential to characterize the genotype-phenotype map. We are developing methodology for large-scale high-resolution phenotyping of growth dynamics. Our system allows for analysis of thousands of mutants/strains per week based on automated cultivation and reading of optical density coupled with robust statistics and feature extraction. In various collaborations we also develop genetically engineered strains. The phenotypic data can be accessed on our phenomics-database PROPHECY.

Selected publications:
Warringer, J., Ericson, E., Fernandez-Ricaud, L., Nerman, O., and Blomberg, A. (2003) High-resolution yeast phenomics resolves different physiological features of the saline response.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 100: 15724-15729

Liti, L., Carter, D., Moses, Warringer, J, A., Parts., L., James, S.A., Robert, P.D., Roberts, I.N., Burt, A., Koufopanou, V., Tsai, I.J., Bergman, B., Bensasson, D., O’Kelly, M.J.T., von Oudenaarden, A., Barton, D.B.H., Bailes, E.,Nguyen, A.N., Jones, M., Qual, M.A., Goodhead, I., Sims, S., Smith, F., Blomberg, A., Durbin, R., and Louis, E.J. (2009) Population genomics of domestic and wild yeasts.
Nature, 458:337

iii) Functional genomics of the barnacle Balanus improvisus

Barnacles are marine invertebrates of evolutionary, ecological and biotechnological interest. We have initiated molecular studies, including cDNA sequencing, on the barnacle Balanus improvisus that is the main boifouling organism on ship-hulls in north-European waters. Our studies on sensing of the new anitfouling substance medetomidine have resulted in cloning and characterization of five octopamine receptors. Recently we have also initiated studies on genes of importance, e.g. Na/K ATPase, in the evolution of subpopulations of B. improvisus along the swedish coast and its salinity gradient.

Selected publications:

Ulrika Lind, Magnus Alm Rosenblad, Linda Hasselberg Frank, Susanna Falkbring, Lars Brive, Jonne M Laurila, Katariina Pohjanoksa, Anne Vuorenpää; Jyrki P. Kukkonen Lina Gunnarsson, Mika Scheinin, Lena G.E. Mårtensson Lindblad and Anders Blomberg (2010) Octopamine receptors from the barnacle Balanus improvisus are activated by the α2-adrenoceptor agonist medetomidine.
Molecular Pharmacology, in press

Full publication list for Anders Blomberg