Rasmus Kock Flygaard

Rasmus Kock Flygaard says: A characteristic feature of life is the need to separate the exterior world from the interior environment of a cell. This is achieved by the use of semi-permeable bilayer membranes. In bacteria and eukaryotic mitochondria, an important and special membrane building block, named cardiolipin, is used. Although mitochondria were once bacterial cells on their own, mitochondria and bacteria use different mechanisms to make cardiolipin. The details of this difference are unknown to us. In this project, I want to reveal this difference on a molecular level, and I will study why important human parasites have retained a bacterial-like system to synthesize cardiolipin. The results of my work will hopefully elucidate why some patients, who cannot make cardiolipin, become very sick. Ultimately, my results will also serve to determine if parasites can be battled by targeting their cardiolipin synthesis machinery.

Rasmus Kock Flygaard is currently employed as a Postdoc at Aarhus University and will establish his independent research group from 1 October 2023.