Thinking Small

Sometimes the big picture can be too big. Microbes are everywhere, and sometimes looking at the small things can answer questions you weren’t expecting to ask.Arjan Kortholt is Associate Professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Arjan’s original work was studying chemotaxis; the movement of cells up or down substance concentration gradients, for example when white blood cells are chasing pathogens. However, whilst studying the proteins involved in chemotaxis, he found they are related to Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s has traditionally been studied by medical doctors, but now Arjan is studying the disease from a new, microbiological angle; using techniques and tools from microbiology to help find a cure.