The award was presented to her during the 2025 Biophysics Conference of the Dutch Research Council (NWO), where Harju gave a presentation and a short pitch.
Chromosome organisation
Before a cell can divide, it must physically separate its chromosome copies within a crowded molecular environment. If this segregation process fails, cell division might be interrupted, or DNA can get caught between the newly forming cell wall. For her thesis, Harju studied how cells organise their chromosomes to facilitate this segregation process.
As part of her research, Harju used theoretical concepts and simulations to better understand how bacteria use tiny molecular motors to organize their chromosomes at large scales. Like human cells, bacterial cells contain loop-extruding motor proteins, which attach onto chromosomes and actively reel in loops. In her work, Dr. Harju showed how bacteria organize their chromosomes by controlling where on their chromosomes these loop-extruders attach and detach.
Medical treatments and biotechnological applications
Understanding fundamental biological processes can help us develop new medical treatments and biotechnological applications. For example, if we know more about how bacteria divide their DNA, we might find ways to disrupt this process during infections, for instance with antibiotics. At the same time, researchers—including here in the Netherlands—are working on building artificial cells. This research could help by providing approaches for how DNA can be separated in these synthetic systems.