A map to the human body's 'building blocks'
Life Science
The human body has hundreds of thousands of cell membrane proteins that are essential for all body functions. “These are amazing miniature machines because they are not just structures”, says Erik Lindahl, Professor of Theoretical and Computational Biophysics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
“Anything that goes in and out of your cell is likely mediated by a membrane protein and it also explains every single nerve signal in our bodies,” Lindahl says.
“Your heart would not beat without membrane proteins.”
Lindahl will join a panel of life science experts on the next edition of Crosstalks, “Science for life - mapping the building blocks of the human body”. The broadcast will begin at 2:30 p.m. CET, October 16.
Also appearing on the program are award-winning science fiction author, Kameron Hurley; Mathias Uhlén, Professor of Microbiology at KTH; and Mats Nilsson, Professor of Biochemistry at Stockholm University.
Lindahl says that for a long time cell membranes were “unknown territory”, but the sequencing work that has been done in the last few years at Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab) is finally starting to unravel this mystery of humanity.
“That will not only help us explain things like pharmaceuticals, but also explain fundamentally who we are and why do our brains function as they do," he says.