Interview With Nobel Laureate BERT SAKMANN

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Interview with Nobel Laureate BERT SAKMANN ‘Scientists need politics-free research environment’ http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=155304 Posted online: Monday, February 19, 2007 at 0040 hours IST Brain is nature’s unique creation. Mankind bestowed with a developed brain distinguishes itself from rest of the life forms. It is the human brain that is behind every innovation and discovery leading to the enrichment of the civilisations we have today. Two Germans—Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann of the Max-Planck Institutes in Goettingen and Heidelberg—won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1991 for discovering how cells communicate, a development that has helped scientists better

explain the cause of such debilitating diseases as diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Taking his research forward, Sakmann is now working to understand the physical and chemical basis of brain functions, particularly the memory mechanism and decision-making processes. He was recently in India as part of the European delegation to the first ever India-EU science ministerial summit in Delhi. In an interview with Ashok B Sharma, he explains the need to understand every phase of brain functioning. Excerpts: How well do we understand the functioning of brain today? The topic I am presently working with my colleagues is the elucidation of the chemical and physical basis of the phenomena like formation of a spatial memory and mechanism that underlie decision-making. It would interest you to note that one of my colleagues is an Indian—Mayank Mehta from Brown University. The

topic we are working relates to higher brain functions, which depends much on the intactness of the brain. On the one hand, the ‘brain’ refers to the material that is located between our ears. On the other hand, in a metaphoric sense, it refers to our ability to interact with the environment in which we survive. Will your research help optimise functions of the brain towards bringing in more creativity? Incidentally, as we have had very eminent science-politicians on the panel, it occurred to me that politicians have a very particular attitude to their brains. They often argue that their colleagues have good brains or no brains depending upon whether the particular colleague is from the same party or not. Let me illustrate this by an anecdote about the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Once during

a debate in the House of Commons on the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, Thatcher remarked—’The honourable members of the Opposition are in no danger to acquire BSE, since they have no brains.’ As we all know, BSE is characterised by a reduction in brain tissue. Your remark on science-politicians is interesting. Can you elaborate? I am not really an expert in science politics or politics in general, hence I would refrain from this most exciting topic. Rather, I would confine myself to the current research. What I mean to say is that scientists need a research environment that is stimulating and free from non-science related problems, particularly politics. I was fortunate to have such an environment in the Max-Planck-Society. Can you tell us something about the language of the brain? The language of the brain is in the form of short-lived electrical signals, referred to as Aps and PSPs. If we want to understand any brain function, we must understand the language of the brain. This means to accurately describe the time dependent pattern of electrical signals that continually sweep through different parts of the brain. I have restricted myself to that part of the brain called gray matter—a thin layer of a few millimeter thickness that covers the brain like a mantle. What inspired you to foray into this kind of research? During my education as a medical student, I found nerves, the nervous system and the brain to be the most interesting tissues. These are also least understood. I decided to prepare my MD thesis on sensory physiology, enquiring into how the visual environment is represented in the brain. My thesis worked out well, but I was not fully

satisfied. I was eager to know more about electrical signals by which cells of the brain communicate. I joined the laboratory of Bernard Katz in London and later collaborated with Erwin Neher. It took about 10 years to find the description of the electrical current that flows through individual ion channels—simultaneous opening of many of these channels, say hundreds or thousands, that generate signals for our muscles to move, our hearts to beat and our brain to think at least for some time! What are your findings ? One unexpected result of our work was the development of new research tools for measuring electrical signals. Earlier, the tools used did not have the necessary resolution and were, therefore, inadequate. My final aim is to establish a detailed model of the two brain functions in mathematical terms. It will allow us to model some aspects of brain

functions in a computer program. What can India do to improve research in basic science? India is a country with longstanding scientific tradition and enormous social problems. It depends upon whether the government is willing to support basic research. If it is willing to be competitive in basic research, it needs to invest in young researchers.-----

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