| Popis: |
Dieter Oesterhelt, the biochemist who identified the first known microbial rhodopsin, died on 28 November 2022 at age 82. Dieter’s discovery of the color and function of the so-called purple membrane of the halophilic bacterium Halobacterium salinarum—and the availability, simplicity, and stability of its single protein, bacteriorhodopsin—laid the foundations for the membrane protein research field that he launched in 1971. Microbial rhodopsins act as light-driven pumps, channels, and enzymes, making the field of optogenetics, in which light controls the activity of targets such as neurons, possible. |
