VIBRANT

Center for Molecular Medicine, Umeå University (UMU), Umeå, Sweden

Working Group Leader

Associate Professor Ulf Ahlgren, Ph.D.

Expertise: The expertise of Ulf Ahlgren’s laboratory lies in the specific use of optical projection tomography (OPT) for assessments of the developing and diseased pancreas. This includes the use of protocols (e.g. immunohistochemical preparation and computer aided quantification of beta cell mass) specifically designed for pancreatic analyses. The group is also exploring possible improvements of the OPT technique for this purpose.

Organization: Umeå University, located in northern Sweden, conducts research and education at five different faculties employing approx. 28 000 students and 4100 staff. The medical faculty harbours 13 departments and 2 research centres with about 500 researchers. Umeå Centre for Molecular Medicine (UCMM) medicine is an interdisciplinary research centre consisting of seven research laboratories with a strong focus on obesity and diabetes research, neural development and cancer. Localized in a tight environment of diverse biomedical laboratories UCMM harbours or have direct access to state of the art equipment for essentially all fields within the life sciences.

Key recent publications:

• Alanentalo T, Lorén C. E, Larefalk Å, Sharpe J, Holmberg D and Ahlgren U. High resolution 3D imaging of islet-infiltrate interactions based on optical projection tomography assessments of the intact adult mouse pancreas. In press, J Biomed Opt.
• Holmberg D & Ahlgren U. Imaging the pancreas: from ex vivo to non-invasive technology. Diabetologia, 2008, Sep 6. [Epub ahead of print]
• Alanentalo T, Asayesh A, Morrison H, Loren CE, Holmberg D, Sharpe J, Ahlgren U. Tomographic molecular imaging and 3D quantification within adult mouse organs. Nature Methods. 2007 Jan;4(1):31-3.
• Asayesh A, Sharpe J, Watson RP, Hecksher-Sorensen J, Hastie ND, Hill RE, Ahlgren U. Spleen versus pancreas: strict control of organ interrelationship revealed by analyses of Bapx1-/- mice. Genes Dev.2006 Aug 15;20(16):2208-13.
• Sharpe J, Ahlgren U, Perry P, Hill B, Ross A, Hecksher-Sorensen J, Baldock R, Davidson D. Optical projection tomography as a tool for 3D microscopy and gene expression studies. Science. 2002 Apr 19;296(5567):541-5.