Time to announce the first 12th WIMC Keynote Speaker – Professor Bert Sakmann.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991 was awarded for the discoveries of the function of ion channels. Two German cell physiologists Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann have together developed a technique that allows the registration of the incredibly small electrical currents that passes through a single ion channel.

It had long been known that there is a rapid ion exchange over the cell membrane, but Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann were the first to show that specific ion channels actually exist. To elucidate how an ion channel operates it is necessary to be able to record how the channel opens and closes. This appeared elusive since the ionic current through a single ion channel is extraordinarily small. In addition, the small ion channel molecules are embedded in the cell membrane. Neher and Sakmann succeeded in solving these difficulties. They developed a thin glass micropipette (a thousandths of a millimeter in diameter) as a recording electrode. When it is brought in contact with the cell membrane, it will form a tight seal with the periphery of the pipette orifice. As a consequence the exchange of ions between the inside of the pipette and the outside can only occur through the ion channel in the membrane fragment. When a single ion channel opens, ions will move through the channel as an electric current, since they are charged. Through a refinement of the electronic equipment and the experimental conditions they succeeded in measuring this “microscopical” current by laborious methodological developments during the seventies.

They also showed how the channel regulates the passage of positively or negatively charged ions. This new knowledge and this new analytical tool has revolutionized modern biology, facilitated research, and contributed to the understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying several diseases, including diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

Read more about our Keynote Speaker here.

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