Group Leader Kim Jensen in prestigious elite programme

The organisation European Molecular Biology Organisation stands behind the prestigious Young Investigator Programme (YIP), and each year chooses around 20 exceptional scientists below the age of 40 years. YIP is an international forum for outstanding young scientists and inspires to networking in a strong academic environment and focuses on giving the scientists a solid foundation as group leaders.

Kim Jensen’s laboratory investigates basic biological mechanisms that control the development of stem cells. Stem cells are vital in order to create and maintain the body’s tissue, and malfunctions in our stem cells can cause diseases such as cancer. Kim Jensen’s lab is especially interested in how stem cells in our surface tissues, such as the skin or the intestinal wall, create and maintain the extensive cell replacement that takes place in these tissues. Research in the Jensen lab has already challenged some of the standing paradigms in stem cell research and proved stem cells to be much more flexible than previously assumed and able to change their destiny according to the environment that they are placed in.

Kim Bak Jensen was recruited to BRIC in the beginning of 2013 from a position as Principal Investigator at Cambridge University. In his short time in Denmark, he has already been awarded the Danish Cancer Society’s Junior Research Prize and a Fellowship from the Lundbeck Foundation.

Three researchers from the University of Copenhagen have been selected for the EMBO Young Investigator Programme 2013. Besides Kim Bak Jensen from BRIC, Professor Niels Mailand and Professor Chunaram Choudhary from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research have been selected.