Researchers engineer bacterial proteins that can transport substances across the cell membrane
How do bacteria overcome the barrier of the outer membrane to gain access to the cells of the body? That is the question addressed by junior professor Dr. Winfried Römer and his colleagues Kevin Tröndle and Dr. Julie Claudinon from the Institute of Biology II, members of the Cluster of Excellence BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies of the University of Freiburg. Römer uses his findings to introduce drugs into cells over the same path so that they can take effect there. Now he has succeeded in creating a modifiable version of a bacterial protein that could serve in the future as a means of transport into the cell. In addition, the team discovered that the precise geometry of the synthetic bacterial substance plays a role in the recognition of the cellular receptor and the process of absorbing the substance into the cell.