Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

‘Our research revealed that the clustering of signalling proteinsand receptors in these hot spots was fundamental to theregulation of airway smooth muscle function,’ Dr Gosenssummarises. The conclusion: caveolae are able to infl uencesmooth muscle contraction and – in combination with otherproteins – cell growth. ‘Furthermore, we found that in lungtissue of animals that were exposed to allergens, there wasincreased expression of the caveolae coat protein caveolin-1,which could explain the enhanced contraction and contractileproperties of the muscle in asthma.’A new drug targetAsthma and other diseases of the airways are not the onlyailments linked to caveolae; they might well play a role incardiovascular diseases and viral infections, and even cancer.‘In addition, it is now evident that a signifi cant portion of therepertoire of drugs available to us works on receptors andsignalling proteins that are clustered in caveolae. Therefore, itis vitally important to understand their behaviour, their functionand their usefulness as drug targets in health and disease,’Dr Gosens points out.For now, however, Dr Gosens continues to focus on asthmaand COPD. Meanwhile, following his return from Canada hehas established his own research programme at the Universityof Groningen in the Netherlands to reveal more of the secretsof smooth muscle cells. And the knowledge he acquired duringthe Marie Curie Fellowship serves him well in this task: ‘Themolecular and cellular biological techniques that I learnedand the multidisciplinary environment in which I trained are allcentral now in my own research programme.’ This research, hehopes, is fi nally going to enable him to translate his fi ndings intopractice in a clinical context, so that new treatment methodscoming out of his work will ease the suffering of asthma andCOPD patients at some point in the not too distant future.Of course, Dr Gosens still has a long way ahead of him. Buthe would not have made it this far without Marie Curie, hebelieves. ‘My Marie Curie Fellowship was fundamental tomost, if not all aspects of my current research,’ the 32-yearoldremarks. ‘Dr Halayko is a world expert in airway smoothmuscle and works on the mechanisms that regulate itsaberrant responses. His expertise in this area and his workon mechanisms of signal transduction in these cells provideda unique environment for me to reach my research goals.’270