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Britt-Marie Sjöberg
Early Life and University Years 
 * 1973 PhD in Medical Chemistry at Karolinska Institute
 * 1976 Docent in Medical and Physiological Chemistry at Karolinska Institute
 * 1984 Associate Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala
 * 1987 Professor of Molecular Biology at Stockholm University
 * 2011 Professor emerita at Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Stockholm University

Research Interests and Career

Britt-Marie Sjöberg first became interested in the central dogma and genetic code while pursuing her BA. Then, while in her doctorate, she studied thioredoxin from bacteriophage T4. Because thioredoxin was a physiological reductant for RNR, she consequently began to look at RNR and became hooked immediately. In the beginning, to isolate RNR mutants in Escherichia coli, she used a genetic screen. However, this tactic proved difficult and thus switched to cloning the genes and constructing the mutations to RNR. With this technique she was able to characterize E. coli’s unique tyrosyl radical in the class I RNR. This has opened up a whole new field of study called radical enzymes and led to the discovery of things, like glycyl radical enzymes in class III RNRS. Continuing with radical enzymes, she has looked at possibilities for inhibition of radicals needed for catalysis.

Then, Sjöberg became interested in the similarities and differences between classes of RNR, like those in cofactors requirements, subunit composition, and allosteric regulation, despite its single evolutionary origin. To better understand this variation, she has created a databank that houses annotations and resolved structures that can be searched for in BLAST interfaces. This databank, and the characterizations of different RNRs from a variety of organisms, has allowed her to sketch a scenario showing how an ancestral RNR may have evolved.

Recently, Sjöberg has also discovered how an ATP-cone domain that is specific to RNRs and their transcriptional repressor NrdR can be horizontally transferred between RNR components. They have also found that it can give rise to a variety of complexes via its “Velcro tape” character.

Sjöberg expects that within the next decade, we will see more discoveries of how to store a stable radical needed for catalysis in class II and III RNRs. She also thinks that more will be learned of how microorganisms encoding more several RNR genes regulate their expression in response to different environmental conditions. This may be biomedically relevant, because the RNRs in human pathogens could then be targeted with novel antibiotics.

As of 2014, Sjöberg also began working as the CEO of the Wenner-Gren Foundations after serving on their Scientific Committee. As the CEO, she helps the foundation assist in international scientific exchange through supporting lodging projects, fellowships to study across borders, and the organization of symposiums. She finds this work to be very important, because when scientists gather and discuss their research it amounts to a collective knowledge it is much greater than the sum of their individual contributions. Currently, her research group is structured along this principle to include people of diverse backgrounds.

Women in Science

While the number of women in life science undergraduate and graduate programs may be substantial, Sjöberg sees this number drop when moving to post doctors, assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors. Believing that this percentage should be constant, she advocates for measures to ensure that all decision-making organizations have women at the table and for mentor programs focused around women early in their careers.

Awards 
 * 987 Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
 * 2011 - 2014 Second Vice President of the Academy
 * 2013 H.M. the King’s Medal in 8th size with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim for “outstanding scientific achievements within molecular biology"