Channels for the supply of energy
Working in cooperation with international colleagues, researchers from the University of Freiburg have described how water-insoluble membrane proteins are transported through the aqueous space between the mitochondrial membranes with the aid of chaperone proteins. The membrane proteins enable the cellular powerhouses to import and export small biomolecules. Thus the team led by Prof. Dr. Nils Wiedemann from Freiburg and Dr. Paul Schanda from Grenoble (France) together with researchers from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the University of Tübingen has answered a fundamental question about the formation of mitochondria. The European Research Council (ERC) funded the research with both a Consolidator Grant and a Starting Grant. The scientists have published their results in the science journal Cell.