This consortium synergistically combines new powerful cytological, biochemical and biophysical tools that potentiate each other:

(1) Bacterial cell biology is an emerging research field that has already provided leaps in the understanding of the spatial organization of prokaryotic cells, as well as in the deeper knowledge of how vital cell functions such as cell division and chromosome segregation occur, and how they are regulated and coordinated within the cell cycle. Members of this consortium have visualized, quantified, and tracked membrane complexes, and monitored interactions of proteins in live bacterial cells. It has also become possible to observe single molecules within membranes. This technology will be employed to investigate how proteins are transported across membranes and assembled into membrane complexes in time and space, opening a new door to establish protein networks.

(2) Biochemistry and biophysics answer crucial questions of the composition of membrane protein complexes and identify interactions between membrane proteins. Defined sites of interaction can be determined, and conformation changes can be monitored. Combined with cell biology, biochemical and biophysical investigation of membrane processes can quantify transport events, assembly and interactions in time, providing a new avenue in microbiology. This approach will also lead to the integration of membrane-associated processes into systems biology, a research focus in Freiburg.