= Thomas Wollert
{c}
<Thomas Wollert> investigates how <proteins> reshape <cell membranes>. In a 2009 study, Wollert and colleagues reconstructed membrane cutting using purified <ESCRT-III> components and large artificial <vesicles>. <Fluorescence microscopy> revealed the formation and detachment of smaller <vesicles> into their interiors. This reduced a process normally embedded in a complex <biological cell> to components that could be added and omitted separately.<Membrane scission by the ESCRT-III complex by Thomas Wollert and others>[abstract and reconstitution experiments]{ref}
Three <ESCRT-III> components sufficed for detachment in this system. Additional machinery, including an <ATPase>, was needed to recycle the <protein> assembly and sustain further rounds. The distinction is illuminating: the minimum machinery for one cutting event need not be the minimum machinery for repeated operation. The purified system established sufficiency under its experimental conditions, without showing that all processes in living <biological cells> use exactly that minimal sequence. The paper credits Wollert with preparing artificial <vesicles>, purifying and labeling <proteins>, and performing microscopy.<Membrane scission by the ESCRT-III complex by Thomas Wollert and others>[abstract; Author Contributions]{ref}
\Image[https://www.biochem.mpg.de/4979737/teaser-1429519263.jpg]
{title=Thomas Wollert}
{description=Portrait used by the https://www.biochem.mpg.de/newsroom/Wollert/en[Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry] for its 2015 award announcement.}
{height=250}
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