“Each molecule in a living organism has its own function, its own beauty,” says Malik Chaker-Margot, a structural biology researcher who specializes in cell signalling. “It’s poetry in action!”

Chaker-Margot uses incredibly precise electron microscopy to observe the proteins, ribonucleic acids (RNAs) and other components involved in cell behaviour. He’s amazed that this cellular machinery is comparable to mechanisms that humans have taken centuries to perfect. “Jocelyn Forget, my cell biology professor, used to say that we’ve never invented anything: everything already exists in nature!”

After earning a doctorate from Rockefeller University in New York and completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel in Switzerland, Chaker-Margot has returned to the University of Montreal, where he teaches alongside his former professors. His main goal is to reveal the secrets of two types of molecules: small GTPases and long non-coding RNAs. “My job is to visualize their structure and to try to understand how they work and the cellular disorders that they bring about when they are altered or overexpressed,” he explains. “Several cancers are caused by the mutation of a signalling protein.”

Chaker-Margot is not only looking for beauty in these molecules: he also hopes to find ways to cure disease. “Although this is basic research, structural biology can contribute to the development of new treatments. By providing information on the structure of proteins or RNAs that cause cancer, we facilitate the creation of molecules that can target them,” he says. This area of research is particularly dear to his heart, since there have been several cases of cancer in his family. “I firmly believe that scientific curiosity can lead to discoveries that will improve society. And if that curiosity is nourished by poetry, all the better!”