The most comprehensive view yet of how external electric fields affect the structure and behavior of proteins is provided by a review study prepared for the prestigious journal Chemical Society Reviews by scientists from the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague. In collaboration with colleagues from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), University College Dublin (Ireland) and Uppsala University (Sweden), they show that this physical method has the potential to fundamentally transform biotechnology, medicine and the food industry.
Proteins are the basic “workers” of every living cell: they ensure digestion, signal transmission in the brain, muscle movement and the body’s defense. “A properly adjusted electric field can precisely and reversibly retune these molecules, changing their shape, movement and function, completely contactlessly and without a single chemical substance,” says Michal Cifra, lead author of the study and head of the Bioelectrodynamics research team at the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
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