30-Nov-2023
Frank Sobott, a renowned Chair in Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry at the University of Leeds (part of Instruct-UK), is starting as a new University of Eastern Finland (part of Instruct-FI) Distinguished Professor, UEFDiPro, at the Department of Chemistry in November 2023. He will bring a touch of international excellence to the department’s mass spectrometry research.
Frank Sobott will be involved in research that utilises the world-class high-resolution mass spectrometry instruments available at the Department of Chemistry. Research conducted on these instruments aims to solve chemical, biochemical and medical research questions. The advantages arising from the UEFDiPro appointment will be widely available to the university’s units on both the Joensuu and Kuopio campuses.
“Collaboration with colleagues from the University of Eastern Finland came from the idea that we could form a centre of excellence in mass spectrometry research by providing access to our research infrastructures and by sharing our technology expertise. The University of Eastern Finland has one of the few high-end mass spectrometry instruments in Europe, which belongs to the Instruct-ERIC infrastructure. I look forward to this collaboration, because each research organisation has its own special skills, and together we can find new and complementary perspectives,” Sobott says.
Visiting the Joensuu Campus late this November, Frank Sobott is the first University of Eastern Finland Distinguished Professor ever appointed. UEFDiPro positions are filled by invitation, and they are geared towards developing the university’s research with strategy and competitiveness in mind. An internationally recognised and well-networked professor may be invited to take up a part-time UEFDiPro position.
“The UEFDiPro system offers an excellent opportunity to recruit internationally renowned researchers to our university, who will strengthen our strategic and multidisciplinary research areas with their own expertise and networks. Frank Sobott's UEFDiPro appointment will clearly show the advantages of the system, and we are very happy to have him on our team,” says the university’s Rector Jukka Mönkkönen.
According to Kari Lehtinen, the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, it is important for eastern Finland to attract international researchers and students, and high-level UEFDiPro positions will, for their part, increase the attraction of the University of Eastern Finland among all staff and students.
“Not only will Sobott help us to attract high-level international staff here, but the level of science in the field represented by him will also rise at the University of Eastern Finland,” Lehtinen points out.
According to Mika Suvanto, the Head of the Department of Chemistry, the UEFDiPro concept creates an excellent setting for increasingly close collaboration with Professor Sobott.
“This collaboration, built around high-level research and world-class infrastructure, is an excellent starting point for new research initiatives and expansions. Collaboration between researchers will also enhance the competitiveness of the research conducted at the Department of Chemistry, which will translate into success in obtaining competitive research funding, as well as high-level publications. New partnerships such as this, and the expanding networks that follow, also significantly improve the department’s ability to make new key recruitments. Currently, discussions are underway on a new associate professorship at the interface of this newly launched collaboration,” Suvanto says.
Professors Juha Rouvinen and Janne Jänis, Dean Kari Lehtinen, Rector Jukka Mönkkönen, Professor Frank Sobott and Head of Chemistry Department Mika Suvanto had a discussion by the mass spectrometry research infrastructure at the Joensuu campus.
Collaboration extends to publications and research funding
At the University of Leeds, Frank Sobott holds a full Chair at the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Following his UEFDiPro appointment, he will also devote a part of his time to research at the University of Eastern Finland.
Sobott is a widely recognised researcher in the field of mass spectrometry. He obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Frankfurt and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, as a postdoctoral fellow and in senior research roles at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and as an associate professor and research professor at the University of Antwerp. Since 2017, he has been a Chair at the University of Leeds.
Sobott’s research has been published extensively in the field’s leading journals, including in Nature Communications. He also has a good track record in attracting significant research funding for his universities and, already now, he has secured a substantial MSCA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) grant for research addressing the structure of replication proteins at the UEF Department of Chemistry for the years 2023–2026.
At the University of Leeds, Sobott’s research group focuses on medical research and drug development. Mass spectrometry is a key method used by Sobott’s team to study the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and to develop new drugs on the molecular and protein levels.
Research into large biomolecules at the atomic level
In Finland, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Eastern Finland has been pioneering biomolecular mass spectrometry and native mass spectrometry research for more than twenty years. The department has at its disposal three large mass spectrometry instruments, which form a unique infrastructure for chemistry research in the country.
The research infrastructure is widely used at the university. Mass spectrometry plays a key role in the activities of the Bio-organic Chemistry Research Group at the Department of Chemistry, which is linked to the university’s strategic research communities Forests and Bioeconomy (FOBI) and Drug Discovery and Delivery Technologies (DrugTech). Biomolecular mass spectrometry is part of the structural biology research platform at Biocenter Kuopio. Native mass spectrometry is also represented in the technology platforms of Biocenter Finland and Instruct-Eric activities.
“Frank Sobott is extremely well known within the field’s international scientific community, and he is also very well connected with the field’s leading research institutes. Sobott’s professorship at UEF will facilitate the university’s involvement in international networks and participation in calls for funding. An example of this is the EU-funded MSCA doctoral network, which is just about to be launched and focuses on doctoral education at the Department of Chemistry,” Professors Janne Jänis and Juha Rouvinen of the Department of Chemistry point out.
The scope of research in Frank Sobott’s UEFDiPro appointment focuses on biomolecular mass spectrometry. Modern mass spectrometers enable the measurement of large biomolecules at the atomic level, allowing the measurement and analysis of, for example, different variations of proteins from complex mixtures.
“In recent years, native mass spectrometry has emerged as a promising method. In native mass spectrometry, biological macromolecules, such as proteins, are measured under conditions where their molecular geometry has been preserved. This enables the study of protein biological activity by mass spectrometry and, for example, the measurement of drug-receptor interactions. Native mass spectrometry is evolving into a very promising new tool for research in biotechnology, molecular biology, cellular biology and biomedical sciences,” Jänis and Rouvinen say.
Sobott sees the use of artificial intelligence with mass spectrometry data as an interesting avenue.
“At Leeds, we’ve just started a project with the pharmaceutical industry where we are studying how mass spectrometry data can be used together with artificial intelligence. We collect data and train artificial intelligence to predict how certain lipids react with membrane proteins. This helps us to understand the chemistry and mechanisms of proteins,” Sobott says.
