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An innovative cell biology project has earned Prof. Dr Kerstin Göpfrich a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. In its biosciences program, the foundation located in Seattle (United States) currently finances pioneering projects concerned with the communication of cell organelles and the biophysics of cell membranes. In her research, which is based at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University, Prof. Göpfrich and scientists in the United Kingdom and Austria are investigating the way cells change shape due to chemical exchange processes and what role the cell membrane plays here.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 4 December 2024
Kerstin Göpfrich Receives Funding for Innovative Cell Biology Research Project
Paul G. Allen Family Foundation allocates 1.5 million US dollars for project with colleagues in Austria and the United Kingdom
An innovative cell biology project has earned Prof. Dr Kerstin Göpfrich a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. In its biosciences program, the foundation located in Seattle (United States) currently finances pioneering projects concerned with the communication of cell organelles and the biophysics of cell membranes. In her research, which is based at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University, Prof. Göpfrich and scientists in the United Kingdom and Austria are investigating the way cells change shape due to chemical exchange processes and what role the cell membrane plays here. Through its Allen Distinguished Investigator Program, the foundation is providing 1.5 million dollars in funding for the three-year research studies.
With her research project Kerstin Göpfrich and her colleagues question the assumption that the cell membrane is passive and only changes its form when other forces influence it biophysically. In this connection, they intend to study the role played here by chemical exchange processes. The hypothesis of the scientists is that while the cells gain matter and energy from these processes, they could also lead to the formation of tentacle-like appendages through which the cells mutually “communicate” with their surroundings. The team wants to decode this so far unknown mechanism with the help of simulations, synthetic membrane systems and in-vivo experiments using cell cultures.
“We hope our experiments will produce new findings on how cells develop and interact dynamically with their surroundings in a broad ecological and evolution-biology context,” says the Heidelberg molecular biologist, who is collaborating in the project “Chemically Active Membranes in the Generation of Cell Shape” with Prof. Dr Andela Saric from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg and Prof. Dr Buzz Baum from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. The finance will be shared equally between the three scientists. Prof. Göpfrich heads the research group “Biophysical Engineering of Life” at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University.
Kerstin Göpfrich studied physics at the University of Erlangen and the University of Cambridge (UK), where she earned her doctorate in 2017. She did post-doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. In 2019 she transferred to the MPI for Medical Research in Heidelberg and then, in 2022, was appointed professor of molecular biology at Heidelberg University’s Faculty of Biosciences. Kerstin Göpfrich has already received multiple awards for her work in the field of synthetic biology, including an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council and funding from the Human Frontier Science Program for innovative basic research in biology.
With the Allen Distinguished Investigator Program, launched in 2010 by philanthropist and visionary Paul G. Allen, the foundation bearing his name supports creative approaches in biological and medical research that are in the early stages and promise groundbreaking new findings on the foundations of life. Funding is recommended by the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute. In the current cohort, 14 scientists are receiving support in six projects. The foundation hopes that their studies on the biological principles controlling fundamental cell functions will lead to crucial scientific progress in human biology.
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http://www.zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de/goepfrich/default.shtml – Kerstin Göpfrich’s website
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