Breakthrough: Structure Of Membrane Protein Described By Hebrew University, German Researchers

The structure of the membrane protein NhaA has been revealed by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Max Planck Institute of Germany. Membrane protein research is at the forefront of modern biological study, with great potential consequences for development of new medicinal treatments and genetic engineering of plants. The research on NhaA has been carried out by Etana Padan, the Adelina and Massimo DellaPergola Professor of Life Sciences, with Dr. Rimon Avraham, both of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University, and Prof. Hartmut Michel, Nobel prize winner for chemistry in 1988, of the Max Planck for biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany. Their work, described in a recent edition of the journal Nature, was supported by a grant from the German-Israel Binational Science Foundation;