ERC Starting Grant
Award year: 2013
Category: Scholarship / Grant
Type: ERC Starting Grant
Awarding organization: Europäischer Forschungsrat (ERC)
Physicist Ana-Suncana Smith examines the way biomembranes function in living cells. Biomembranes are responsible for the selective transport of molecules or the transmission of signals between cells. Many drugs can only work if the biomembrane in the cell plays its part properly. Ana-Suncana Smith aims to determine the (bio)physical principles in cells and develop a theory that she will then test initially with biomimetic membranes, i.e. synthetic membranes that mimic nature, as simplified model systems. In the second test stage, living cells will be used.