This laboratory's field of expertise is the molecular genetics of yeast. Above all for this group, it is a model for probing basic functions common to all eukaryotic cells, functions whose alteration may cause human diseases.
Membrane transporters are the group's special focus.
One fruitful approach has been to track them down systematically by computer-aided sequence analysis. This has revealed proteins of unknown function which are conserved in human cells. The team was the first to clone a gene coding for such a protein. Also in focus are the mechanisms controlling the biological activity of cell surface proteins, key determinants of drug and hormone action. One regulator protein under study generates prions in yeast.