On June 21 the Academic Senate of the University of California at Irvine approved the establishment of a Center for Biomembrane Systems, whose Director will be Professor Hartmut Luecke of the UCI Departments of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Computer Science. He will be assisted by three Associate Directors, Professor Michael Dennin, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Steven White, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Professor Zuzanna Siwy, Department of Physics and Astronomy. The Center will be responsible for organizing a number of joint research activities, including graduate student training, conferences, workshops, and travel.

Not only is such cross-disciplinary cooperation in the spirit of ICAM, but the idea of forming the Center actually grew out of one of the quarterly meetings of the ICAM node at UC Irvine. Attendees at the ICAM lunchtime gathering recognized the strength of UCI in biomembrane research. They decided to hold a one-day symposium on Biological Membrane Studies, which took place in spring of 2006. It was attended by approximately 15 UCI faculty and an additional 10-15 students and postdocs. From this meeting, a proposal was developed for a formal Center.

Biomembranes can be defined loosely as structures bounding all cells and cell organelles. They are typically composed of lipids, proteins, steroids, sugars, etc. Roughly 30% of all human proteins are membrane proteins. Vital to health, they control the flow of information and materials between cells and mediate critical activities like nerve impulses and hormone action. Membrane proteins are the targets of more than 60% of all drugs on the market today. Thus understanding their structures and how they function will contribute significantly to the discovery and improvement of pharmaceuticals. They are also key components in the formultion of vaccines against human pathogens.

The NIH website on grants, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-02-060.html, features a specific call for increased research in the area of biomembranes and membrane proteins. It states, in part, “Despite the importance of membrane proteins, the knowledge of their high-resolution structures and mechanisms of action has lagged far behind the knowledge of these properties of proteins in general.” Part of the challenge of study in this area is that it involves interdisciplinary work at the intersection of life sciences, physical disciplines, and technology. The new Center for Biomembrane Systems at UC-Irvine aims to bring together researchers and students from all these disciplines.

By Karie Friedman, ICAMNews – July 2007