Researchers at Stockholm University investigate the inner lives of cells at a molecular level. Picture: Stockholm University.
Researchers at Stockholm University investigate the inner lives of cells at a molecular level. Picture: Stockholm University.

“It’s not difficult to imagine that the system breaks down sometimes and causes serious illnesses like ALS and Alzheimer’s. That can happen in numerous ways. What’s remarkable is how well it functions overall”, says Mikael Oliveberg, Professor in Biochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University.

“It means billions and billions of processes occurring independently in a self-organising system.”

“Previous research has focused mostly on studying details and isolated processes – the general consensus was that the system as a whole was too difficult to comprehend. There are 30 000 different types of proteins in one human cell alone”, explains Mikael Oliveberg. Therefore, researchers have thought that the foundational rules must be very simple and stable, that it was a question only of finding them. Over the last couple years, his research group has developed methods to follow the molecular properties of proteins and how they function in living cells down to the atomic level.

Mik
Mikael Oliveberg. Photo: Niklas Björling.

“Thanks to the 20 million SEK grant, we can develop these methods further and go deeper. Already we’re finding regularities and we can design proteins that behave in new ways within a living system”, says Mikael Oliveberg.

“We can even quantify the underlying physics, which is the part that fascinates us the most. This is pure research that hopefully will become the basis for future medical and biotechnical uses. Just think, how can we ‘cure’ molecular conditions if we don’t understand how cells work at a molecular level?”

Project: “Deciphering the physicochemical codes for cellular function” is financed for 5 years.

About the grant:

Every year the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation awards grants to research projects which are judged to be of the highest international standard with the potential to lead to future scientific breakthroughs. In 2017 the foundation awarded 560 million SEK (69 million USD) to 18 research projects. Stockholm University received two of these grants for a total of just over 55 million SEK (6.8 million USD).