Faculty of Medicine professor uncovers missing link in Louis Pasteur’s Life without Oxygen theory

"How do bodily cells function when we are at a high altitude where the air contains little oxygen?" In the paper "An Oxygen-Regulated Switch in the Protein Synthesis Machinery," published in Nature, the world's most prestigious scientific journal, Dr. Stephen Lee, a professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, has made a breakthrough that answers this question.

Dr. Lee and his team, which includes Dr. James Uniacke, describe a new process that cells use to produce proteins in low-oxygen environments. "Proteins are the building blocks of life," explains Dr. Lee. "By discovering fermentation, Pasteur introduced the concept of 'life without oxygen.' What remained a mystery until now is how our cells make these building blocks in low-oxygen conditions in order to sustain life. This finding constitutes a significant missing piece of the puzzle and highlights how there are still many basic processes of life that remain undiscovered."

Find out more about Dr. Lee's research by reading the article in Nature.

Text: Maria Scopelliti
Photo: Robert Lacombe
Published: May 2012