Research Sander Tans awarded grant in Open Programme of NWO-ALW
Six proposals from the Open Programme of NWO Earth and Life Sciences have been awarded funding. One of the approved proposals is from Sander Tans who works at FOM institute AMOLF at the interface between the life sciences and physics.
Tans' programme entitled 'DnaK chaperoning action at the single-molecule level' is about a class of proteins that helps other proteins to find and retain the correct structure. How they do that is often unknown and difficult to determine, as the structure is rapidly formed and proteins are very small. The researchers want to solve this by only observing a single protein as it is being helped, which has recently become possible using 'optical tweezers'. Initial test measurements have already revealed that these helper proteins realise a far more complex task than had been assumed up until now.
See also the news release about the work of Sander Tans (July 2013): 'A Rubik's cube at the nanoscale: proteins puzzle with amino acid chains'.
Open Programme
The Open Programme of NWO ALW enables researchers in the earth and life sciences to develop their own new lines of research. The aim of the programme is to encourage scientific research across the entire breadth of the earth and life sciences. Thanks to the open competition researchers can elaborate new, risky ideas without being limited in this by the objectives of programmes or themes.
The other proposals awarded funding can be found on the website of NWO.