Magnar Bjørås
Background and activities
Prof Magnar Bjørås is a Principle Investigator of the research group of Cellular responses to DNA damage at Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim and at Oslo University Hospital/University of Oslo. Bjørås is an expert on genome dynamics with particular emphasis on oxidative stress, DNA base lesion repair and maintenance of epigenetic DNA methylation (epigenome stability).
Our main focus has been on repair of endogenous DNA base lesion repair mechanisms and genome stability. We have made major contributions to characterization of many new DNA repair enzymes from bacteria, yeast and mammalian. Our group has solved the atomic 3D-structure of many DNA-protein complexes revealing several new mechanisms of DNA base damage recognition and catalysis. We have also established research on the role of DNA base lesion repair in neurodegeneration, cognition and behavior, which is a new direction in the DNA repair field revealing novel functions beyond canonical DNA. Furthermore, we have established collaborations with clinicians to study the impact of DNA base lesion repair on diseases such as infections, heart failure, rare neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. We develop new nanoparticle technology for genomics
Project
- Role of oxidative DNA base lesion repair in cancer. Project leader: Magnar Bjørås
- Aberrant Oxidative DNA Modifications and DNA Structures in Genome Regulation. Project leaders: Magnar Bjørås
- Bacterial Toxin-Antitoxin peptides in biological responses to DNA damage. Project leaders: Magnar Bjørås and James Booth
- Pathomechanisms of lysosomal storage disorders in rare neurodegenerative diseases: Project leaders: Magnar Bjørås and Mirta Mittelstedt de Sousa
- Applications of nanoparticle technology in genomics: Project leader: Magnar Bjørås
Scientific, academic and artistic work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database
Journal publications
- (2022) abc4pwm: affinity based clustering for position weight matrices in applications of DNA sequence analysis. BMC Bioinformatics. vol. 23 (1).
- (2022) DrugVirus.info 2.0: an integrative data portal for broad-spectrum antivirals (BSA) and BSA-containing drug combinations (BCCs). Nucleic Acids Research (NAR).
- (2022) Mono- and combinational drug therapies for global viral pandemic preparedness. iScience. vol. 25 (4).
- (2022) NEIL3-deficient bone marrow displays decreased hematopoietic capacity and reduced telomere length. Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports. vol. 29.
- (2022) Immobilization of FeFe-hydrogenase on black TiO2 nanotubes as biocathodes for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Electrochemistry communications. vol. 135.
- (2021) Non-flipping DNA glycosylase AlkD scans DNA without formation of a stable interrogation complex. Communications Biology. vol. 4.
- (2021) Increased p53 signaling impairs neural differentiation in HUWE1-promoted intellectual disabilities. Cell Reports Medicine. vol. 2 (4).
- (2021) NEIL1 and NEIL2 DNA glycosylases modulate anxiety and learning in a cooperative manner in mice. Communications Biology. vol. 4.
- (2021) Nafamostat–interferon-α combination suppresses sars-cov-2 infection in vitro and in vivo by cooperatively targeting host tmprss2. Viruses. vol. 13:1768 (9).
- (2021) Synergistic interferon-alpha-based combinations for treatment of sars-cov-2 and other viral infections. Viruses. vol. 13:2489 (12).
- (2021) Active components of commonly prescribed medicines affect influenza a virus–host cell interaction: A pilot study. Viruses. vol. 13 (8).
- (2021) NEIL3-deficiency increases gut permeability and contributes to a pro-atherogenic metabolic phenotype. Scientific Reports. vol. 11 (1).
- (2021) Endonuclease v regulates atherosclerosis through c-c motif chemokine ligand 2-mediated monocyte infiltration. Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). vol. 10 (14).
- (2021) DNA repair enzyme NEIL3 enables a stable neural representation of space by shaping transcription in hippocampal neurons. iScience. vol. 24 (12).
- (2021) Epitope-resolved profiling of the SARS-CoV-2 antibody response identifies cross-reactivity with endemic human coronaviruses. Cell Reports Medicine. vol. 2 (1).
- (2021) Antimicrobial resistance: A challenge awaiting the post-COVID-19 era. International Journal of Infectious Diseases. vol. 111.
- (2021) Insight into ALKBH8-related intellectual developmental disability based on the first pathogenic missense variant. Human Genetics. vol. 141.
- (2021) Screening of FDA-Approved Drugs Using a MERS-CoV Clinical Isolate from South Korea Identifies Potential Therapeutic Options for COVID-19. Viruses.
- (2021) Synthesis and antimicrobial activities of chitosan/polypropylene carbonate-based nanoparticles. RSC Advances. vol. 11 (17).
- (2021) DNA glycosylase Neil3 regulates vascular smooth muscle cell biology during atherosclerosis development. Atherosclerosis. vol. 324.