Claus Jørgensen - Profile
Dr Claus Jørgensen works in the emerging research area of network biology, using powerful computers and cutting-edge equipment to investigate and predict cellular processes within the body that can become faulty and trigger disease. He is the Leader of the Cell Communication Team in the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology based at the ICR’s Chester Beatty Laboratories in London.
Understanding communication between cells is crucial, as many cancers and other diseases are caused by a breakdown in communications systems. Under Dr Jørgensen, the Cell Communication Team investigates how reciprocal signalling between different cells controls the cells’ behaviour. Cells communicate through a network of specialised proteins known as signalling molecules. Dr Jørgensen’s work involves measuring these molecules to assess how cells respond to environmental changes individually and when in a multi-cellular setting. Importantly, the team’s emphasis is on researching types of cell communication thought to play a role in disease development, and how communication with neighbouring cells differs between cancerous and normal cells.
“Normal cells do not invade surrounding tissue, whereas something has changed within cancer cells, which allows them to spread through neighbouring tissue and into distant organs. When we begin to understand the mechanisms behind cell-to-cell communication, we can work out the molecular signals that trigger the invasive process,” Dr Jørgensen says. “By combining my interest and knowledge in cell communication with the ICR's outstanding track record in developing novel treatments for cancer patients, our ultimate goal is to develop new and more effective treatments.”
Dr Jørgensen joined the ICR in 2010 after five years as a Post Doctoral Fellow at Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mt Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada. There he developed a technique that allows scientists to more accurately replicate what is happening in the body when neighbouring cells communicate. Previous techniques did not take into account that cells respond to the signals they receive and feedback to each other, like a conversation between people. By attaching labels to individual cells, a machine called a mass spectrometer can be used to determine the origin of signalling molecules produced, allowing scientists to examine two populations of cells at once and determine each cell type’s role in their complicated ‘conversations’.
“I find this truly fascinating as it really shows how complex cell commutation is on a molecular level,” Dr Jørgensen says.
Dr Jørgensen received his Masters of Science from the University of Southern Denmark in 2003 and his PhD in 2005. He has already been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including a Fellowship from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, a Danish National Health Care Research Counsel Scholarship and a fellowship from the Lundbeck Foundation.
In the rare moments he is not engaged with science, Dr Jørgensen relaxes by reading a book, spending time with his family, watching comedy and travelling.
