Meteoric nano career
The National Centres of Competence in Research focus on promoting young researchers. For example, one young scientist from the NCCR Nanosciences is scaling the academic career ladder at record pace.
"My research is my passion," remarks Nanobiologist Roderick Lim from the Biozentrum at the University of Basel. Lim is only 35 years old and has already been appointed Professor in Nanobiology. The strong support provided by the NCCR Nanosciences actively fostered his research and played a key role in his career advancement. "The NCCR is a vital platform for our area," explains Roderick Lim. "The good thing about the NCCR is that it provides funds not only for well established projects and disciplines, but also for up and coming research areas." The nanosciences undoubtedly fall into the latter category. "This research area belongs to the future," comments Roderick Lim who admits to thinking about his research projects day and night. In 2004, he joined the group of Ueli Aebi, Biophysicist at the Biozentrum. As a post-doctoral student, Roderick Lim led a research group in the NCCR Nanosciences at the Maurice E. Müller Institute for Structural Biology. He achieved some groundbreaking results and at the beginning of 2009, he was appointed as the first Argovia Professor of nanobiology at the University of Basel. This new discipline is funded jointly by the canton of Aargau, the Biozentrum and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute, an offshoot of the NCCR Nanosciences.
Roderick Lim was born in Singapore in 1974. He studied applied physics at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (U.S.A). He then worked in materials research at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering at the National University of Singapore, where he completed his doctorate in 2003.
Today, Roderick Lim's group focuses on biological issues that he aims to solve with the help of the nanosciences. "Conventional biology follows a top-down approach, it goes from the big picture down to the fine details," comments Lim. "In nanobiology we prefer a bottom up approach. We look first at how the individual molecules behave and influence one another before we attempt to find an answer to complex biological questions."
Thus far in Basel, Roderick Lim has primarily explored the nuclear pore complexes of cells, the fundamental component of practically all life forms. These complexes are similar to valves in the membrane around the cell core in which the cell stores its genetic material. They consist of around thirty different proteins arranged symmetrically around a central pore with a diameter of around 50 nanometres. They selectively carry important substances into the cell core or away from it again. To date it was not known how this works and why certain substances are taken and others not.
In 2007, Roderick Lim and his colleagues were able to show how larger molecules are actively transported by these nuclear pore complexes in a much acclaimed paper published in the American journal Science. "This was my most important publication to date," comments Roderick Lim. "Not only because I was able to answer important questions, but also because the findings were a result of teamwork that couldn’t have been better." These findings were only possible because of the interdisciplinary approach that is typical of Roderick Lim's laboratory. Biochemists, molecular biologists, nanotechnologists, physicists and material scientists contribute their specific knowledge and methods to resolving biology's unanswered questions.
When carrying out research, Roderick Lim's team combines high-resolution image techniques with powerful new-generation microscopes, e.g. the scanning atomic force microscope. As a result, processes can be observed and monitored at the atomic level. The researchers replicate nanomolecules in the test tube and study the interactions. "We can actually see the molecules and admire the fascinating way they dance with one another," says Roderick Lim who likes to employ a visual, yet precise way of describing his research.
Originally from South-East Asia, Roderick Lim felt at home in Basel from the very beginning. "It is a joy to be allowed to work in a city with such a rich intellectual and academic history," says Lim enthusiastically. "From Bernoullis and Carl Gustav Jung to Albert Hofmann, everyone who researched here was passionate about their subject and enjoyed a worldwide reputation. That’s pretty impressive."