= Volker Brinkmann
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<Volker Brinkmann> is a researcher in cellular <microbiology> whose 2004 collaborative study described <neutrophil extracellular traps>. Activated <neutrophils> released <chromatin> and antimicrobial <proteins> into extracellular fibers that bound <bacteria>. The team combined observations of these structures with measurements of their antimicrobial effects.<Neutrophil extracellular traps kill bacteria by Volker Brinkmann and others>[Abstract; Science 303, 1532–1535, 2004]{ref}
The observation was striking because it placed nuclear material in an extracellular defensive structure. <Neutrophils> can engulf microbes by <phagocytosis>, but a <neutrophil extracellular trap> acts outside the cell and concentrates antimicrobial components around bound organisms. Distinguishing the location of the material from its effect is essential: seeing extracellular <DNA> alone would not establish the full binding-and-killing mechanism. The reported experiments concerned specific activation and infection settings, rather than every possible state of a <neutrophil>.<Neutrophil extracellular traps kill bacteria by Volker Brinkmann and others>[Abstract: chromatin/granule-protein fibers, bacterial binding, virulence-factor degradation and killing]{ref}
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