---

Charged atoms, or ions, moving between cells is crucial to biological activities like the nerve signals and muscle movement. Professors Sakmann and Neher confirmed that ion transit occurs through special molecules in the cell membrane called ion channels that can be triggered to allow ions to pass through them. Professor Sakmann has spent most of his career at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany. He was appointed an Eminent Scholar of the University of Melbourne in 1999, and received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University in 2003.

Read more about Professor Sakmann