Cafer Özdemir, a senior student in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, participated in a summer research study at the Institute of Medical Sciences in the UK. As a result of the research, he co-authored an article published in the respected Journal of Biological Chemistry, May 26, 2003 (Vol. 278).
Cafer received a research scholarship and spent three months in Scotland. The name of project was “The closed structure of the MscS mechanosensitive channel & Cross-linking of single cysteine mutants”. The goal of the project was to discover the structure-function relationships of an ion channel of bacteria. The channel is vital for the survival of bacteria under osmotic pressure and it can be a target for antibiotics,leading to medical advancements in the fight against bacteria. The project disproved a previously asserted hexamer structure; the actual structure was proven to be heptamer.