Bert Sakmann was Director of the Department of Cell Physiology at the MPI for Medical Research from 1989 until 2007. During this time, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1991) for for the development of the patch-clamp method. In Heidelberg he focused on the elucidation of mechanisms of fast signaling within nerve cells, between nerve cells and of long-term changes in their synaptic coupling. To decipher the generated code and identify the intracellular receivers of calcium transients was one of the aims.