Biography
Born in Hamburg, Germany, Carlberg completed his secondary education in Bremen, Germany, graduating in 1981 with Abitur at the Gymnasium an der Bördestrasse. From 1982 to 1987, he pursued studies in physics and biochemistry at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, earning a diploma in biochemistry. Thereafter, under the mentorship of Burghardt Wittig, in 1989 he obtained his Dr. rer. nat. PhD focusing on the interaction between polymerases and DNA secondary structures.
Between 1989 and 1992, Carlberg conducted postdoctoral research with Willi Hunziker at Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, initiating his exploration into Vitamin D gene regulation. From 1992 to 1997, he continued this research in the Dermatology Department at the University of Geneva under Jean-Hilaire Saurat concentrating on gene regulation mediated by nuclear receptors. In 1997, he achieved his Habilitation at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, while leading a research group in Helmut Sies´s Department of Physiological Chemistry.
In 2000, Carlberg was appointed as a full professor of biochemistry at the University of Kuopio, which in 2010 became part of the University of Eastern Finland. From 2006 to 2011, he held a concurrent position at the University of Luxembourg, where he established a Master's program in Integrated Systems Biology. Since 2022, he has been serving as the ERA Chair in Nutrigenomics at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Olsztyn, Poland.
Work and publications
Carlberg's research centers on gene regulation and epigenetics, with a particular emphasis on vitamin D. His work has significantly advanced the understanding of nuclear receptor signaling pathways and their implications in health and disease. He has authored over 300 publications listed in the Science Citation Index, which have been cited more than 14,000 times, resulting in an h-index of 66. Throughout his career, Carlberg has supervised 32 MSc students, 24 doctoral students and 16 postdoctoral fellows. He has also authored several textbooks, including Mechanisms of Gene Regulation, Nutrigenomics, Human Epigenomics, Cancer Biology, Molecular Immunology, Molecular Medicine, and Aging, reflecting his teaching and research expertise.
A hormone receptor is a receptor molecule that binds to a specific hormone. Hormone receptors are a wide family of proteins made up of receptors for thyroid and steroid hormones, retinoids and Vitamin D, and a variety of other receptors for various ligands, such as fatty acids and prostaglandins. Hormone receptors are of mainly two classes. Receptors for peptide hormones tend to be cell surface receptors built into the plasma membrane of cells and are thus referred to as trans membrane receptors. An example of this is Actrapid. Receptors for steroid hormones are usually found within the protoplasm and are referred to as intracellular or nuclear receptors, such as testosterone. Upon hormone binding, the receptor can initiate multiple signaling pathways, which ultimately leads to changes in the behavior of the target cells.
Ronald Mark Evans is an American Biologist, Professor and Head of the Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory, and the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Ronald M. Evans is known for his original discoveries of nuclear hormone receptors (NR), a special class of transcriptional factor, and the elucidation of their universal mechanism of action, a process that governs how lipophilic hormones and drugs regulate virtually every developmental and metabolic pathway in animals and humans. Nowadays, NRs are among the most widely investigated group of pharmaceutical targets in the world, already yielding benefits in drug discovery for cancer, muscular dystrophies, osteoporosis, type II diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. His current research focuses on the function of nuclear hormone signaling and their function in metabolism and cancer.
The androgen receptor (AR), also known as NR3C4, is a type of nuclear receptor that is activated by binding any of the androgenic hormones, including testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, in the cytoplasm and then translocating into the nucleus. The androgen receptor is most closely related to the progesterone receptor, and progestins in higher dosages can block the androgen receptor.
The vitamin D receptor (VDR also known as the calcitriol receptor) is a member of the nuclear receptor family of transcription factors. Calcitriol (the active form of vitamin D, 1,25-(OH)2vitamin D3) binds to VDR, which then forms a heterodimer with the retinoid-X receptor. The VDR heterodimer then enters the nucleus and binds to Vitamin D responsive elements (VDRE) in genomic DNA. VDR binding results in expression or transrepression of many specific gene products. VDR is also involved in microRNA-directed post transcriptional mechanisms. In humans, the vitamin D receptor is encoded by the VDR gene located on chromosome 12q13.11.
Bert W. O'Malley is an endocrinologist from the United States. He was born in 1936 in the Garfield section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his early education at Catholic primary schools and Central Catholic High School, before pursuing higher education at the University of Pittsburgh, where he completed both his undergraduate and medical studies, graduating first in his class. It was here that he met Sally, who would become his wife and lifelong partner. The couple went on to have four children.
Retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR-α), also known as NR1B1, is a nuclear receptor that in humans is encoded by the RARA gene.
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