Nobel prize-winning scientist Professor Bert Sakmann has joined the research team at the University of Ulster’s internationally-renowned  Biomedical Sciences Research Institute.

Next January Professor Sakmann moves to the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Munich. For the next three years, he will spend part of his time on a common research project on the structure of nerve cells with the University of Ulster, beginning next June.
 
Professor Sakmann is one of the world’s most distinguished biomedical scientists, having been awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for Physiology (with research partner Erwin Neher) for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells.
 
Being a modern scientist, Prof. Sakmann is always eager to use the latest technology available for his research. He is therefore convinced that using computerised or so-called in silico models to simulate how neurons communicate with each other will contribute significantly to our future understanding on how we think and memorise (see notes for editors below for further information on Professor Sakmann’s research).
 
He brings more than 30 years of research at the prestigious Max Planck Institutes for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and for Medical Research in Heidelberg to his new appointment, following his retirement as Institute Director. After establishing his new laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Munich in January next year, he will be collaborating very closely with his former PhD student and postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Kurt Saetzler, who was appointed as Lecturer in Computational Biology at Ulster in 2003.
 
Professor Tony Bjourson, Director of the University’s Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, said: “The appointment of Professor Bert Sakmann at Ulster is further recognition of our continued emphasis and commitment to research excellence.  Professor Sakmann’s expertise in functional and structural neurobiology will contribute to research projects in the field of ageing, bioimaging, systems biology and vision science.”
 
Welcoming Professor Sakmann’s appointment, Ulster’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Barnett, said:
 
“It is a mark of the international standing of our research in biomedical sciences that so distinguished a scientist as Professor Sakmann has chosen to join us. Awarded the highest rating of 5* in both of the two most recent UK-wide research assessment exercises, biomedical research at the University of Ulster has been assessed objectively to be Northern Ireland’s leading research group of international standing.  
 
“The choice by this outstanding Nobel Prize-winning scientist to join us is further confirmation of our international reputation for excellence in biomedical science.” 
 
 
ENDS
 
Notes for Editors:
 
1. Professor Bert Sakmann: biographical information

Born in Stuttgart in 1942, Professor Sakmann served from 1969 to 1970 as a research assistant in the department of neurophysiology at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry and then finished his postdoctoral studies in the Department of Biophysics at University College, London. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1974, Sakmann joined the Department of Neurobiology at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, where he shared laboratory space with Erwin Neher.
 
Working together, the two men used the patch-clamp technique to conclusively establish the existence of characteristic sets of ion channels in cell membranes – some of which permit the flow of only positive ions, while others pass only negatively charged ions. This established, they examined a broad range of cellular functions, eventually discovering the role that ion channels play in such diseases as diabetes, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, several cardiovascular diseases, and certain neuromuscular disorders.
 
In 1979 Professor Sakmann became a research associate in the Max Planck Institute's membrane biology group. He was made head of the membrane physiology unit in 1983, and he became director of the institute's Department of Cell Physiology two years later, retiring this summer.

Further biographical information about Professor Sakmann can be found at:
 
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1991/sakmann-autobio.html


2. The Biomedical Sciences Research Institute at the University of Ulster

The University of Ulster’s Biomedical Sciences Research Institute (BMSRI) has an international reputation for research excellence, and was awarded the top score of 5* in both the 1996 and 2001 HEFCE Research Assessment Exercises (assessing the quality of research in all UK universities). The Institute incorporates the Centre for Molecular Biosciences, the Centre for Functional Genomics, the FEI Centre for Advanced Bioimaging – which has unrivalled equipment that together with Dr Saetzler’s expertise in 3-dimensional reconstructions of cellular and sub-cellular compartments will be of real benefit to Prof Sakmann’s research - and ten research groups working in the fields of:
 
Bioimaging; Biomedical Genomics; Cancer & Ageing; Diabetes; Environmental and Food Microbiology: Microbiology and Biotechnology; Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE); Stem Cell & Epigenetics; Systems Biology; and Vision Science.
 
http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/biomed/research
 
3. Ion Channels

Ion channels cross the membranes of cells. They are made to open as part of the signalling process when, for instance, the cells in the pancreas secrete insulin, when the heart is contracting, or when we think or remember something. A number of diseases are either influenced or caused by a modified ion channel function. Many drugs act directly on the specific type of ion channel, which is of importance in a particular disease. Examples include anxiety, cardiovascular disease, epilepsy, and diabetes.
 
Professor Sakmann (and research partner Erwin Neher) also invented the patch-clamping technique that allows the measurement of currents as small as one picoamp (0.000000000001 amperes), such as occur when an individual ion channel is caused to open.
 
For more information on ion channels, see Professor Sten Grillner’s exposition of the role of ion channels delivered as the presentation speech for Professor Sakmann’s Nobel Prize in 1991.
 
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1991/presentation-speech.html

For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk