Pumping life Oleg Sitsel,ph.d. student, Ingrid Dach, ph.d. student and Robert Hoffmann, ph.d. student, PUMPKIN, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Science Park and Dept. of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
[email protected], ingrid@biophys. au.dk,
[email protected] The name PUMPKIN may suggest a research cen- clinically important drug targets e.g. in the treat- tre focused on American Halloween traditions ment of congestive heart failure or gastric ulcers, or the investigation of the growth of vegetables and they encompass promising targets for a broad – however this would be misleading. Research- range of novel drugs. ers at PUMPKIN, short for Centre for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease, are in fact interested Research at the PUMPKIN centre is highly inter- in a large family of membrane proteins: P-type disciplinary, making use of the knowledge, exper- ATPase pumps. This article takes the reader on a tise and equipment from many groups spanning tour from Aarhus to Copenhagen, from bacteria over a number of institutions. P-type pumps are to plants and humans, and from ions over protein therefore studied from different perspectives, structures to diseases caused by malfunctioning starting with basic research on their structure and pump proteins. The magazineNature once titled function and ending up transferring this knowl- work published from PUMPKIN ‘Pumping ions’. edge to biotechnology and drug discovery. This Here we illustrate that the pumping of ions means broad approach involves the use of a great variety nothing less than the pumping of life.