There was intense activity both at the biomedical departments and at the Aarhus University Hospital clinic. So much, in fact, that approximately 15% of the researchers at the Faculty of Health Sciences are estimated to have been involved in ATPase research in the mid-1980s. More than 600 articles on different aspects of the structure and function of Na,K-ATPase have emanated from Aarhus University since 1965 – published by both current and retired researchers.

Jens Christian Skou and a number of colleagues set up the Biomembrane Centre, as part of the biotechnology research programme in the mid-80s, and this established a large Danish forum for research into transport across cell membranes. Anchoring this at the Faculty of Health Sciences continued right up to 2006, after which the PUMPKIN basic research centre was opened, and this is where studies of the structure and function of ion pumps continue.

In 1973, the first international conference on Na,K-ATPase was held in New York. Professor Skou took the initiative to hold the following congress at the Sandbjerg Estate in 1978 and subsequently at the Fuglsø Centre in 1987. A number of current ATPase researchers organised the 12th conference in this series in Aarhus in 2008, with Skou as honorary chairman.
Read more about the 12th International ATPase Conference .

This image shows the three-dimensional atomic structure of the sodium-potassium pump. Researchers attached to the Danish National Research Foundation’s PUMPKIN centre have revealed what the ion pumps in the cells look like and how they work. Read more about the discovery.