The researchers involved in the project hope that its results will yield new approaches in the treatment of infectious diseases or the therapy of tumours. This is, for example, required in cell division if the process is to lead to a complete development of an organism, and it also enables nerve cells to transmit signals correctly. The mechanisms and components that are needed to maintained the polarised organisation of the cell are examined in the new priority programme Cell Polarity. Using new genome research technologies, the scientists involved in the project also want to analyse the molecular mechanisms that lead to the formation of proteins. Understanding these molecular biology processes has a considerable biotechnological potential, since archae can even survive in extreme environmental conditions such as high temperatures or high pressure.
Many organisms can form mineral solids.
For example, there are the eggshells of birds eggs, mussel or snail houses and the bones and teeth of vertebrates. These bio-minerals consist of relatively simple compounds and are optimally suited to their respective purposes, such as protection, defence or skeletal structure. The goal of the priority programme Principles of Bio-mineralisation is to synthesise these biological processes in artificial ones. In close collaboration, chemists and biologists will attempt to understand how organisms form minerals. Frequently, catalysis reactions in technical chemistry are less efficient than the biochemical patterns they have been modelled on.