Proteins – Building Blocks of Life

Proteins are essential substances involved in the production of biological material and are crucial for coordinating such processes. Improper function of this control process can result in severe diseases; if cell growth gets out of control, it can result in cancer. Therefore, protein science is taking center stage in life sciences – with the aid of chemistry, medicine, biology, biochemistry, and also biophysics. The exploration of protein functions has come to be an important element in biomedicine and biotechnology. While quite recently the focus was still on individual proteins and their isolated functions, the scientists at the Excellence Cluster CIPSM (Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich) these days are taking particular interest in investigating the function of proteins in context and in understanding their interactions in order to be able to control them at a future point in time.