’Already as a child I knew I wanted to be a scientist.’

Biochemist Prof. Lydia Sorokin about her research on the -extracellular matrix-, her love of nature and new digital formats for exchanging knowledge with international colleagues Prof. Sorokin, what research topic are you working on? In my research group we focus on the extracellular matrix - these are protein structures that are secreted by cells and surround cells in tissues. Importantly, these structures not only form a tissue scaffold, but have a decisive influence on cellular functions. In the past ten years, there has been increasing awareness that the molecular and mechanical signals that stem from the extracellular matrix act in a Yin-Yang manner - meaning as opposing and complementary principles - to define tissue form and function. We investigate these signals, focusing on a specialised extracellular matrix, the basement membrane. It is a thin two-dimensional sheet, rather like a sheet of paper but of course thousands of times thinner, that constitutes an integral part of all cellular barriers in the body. It acts to separate different tissue compartments in organs from each other. The outer wall of a capillary or small vessel, for example, is a basement membrane.