Perspective

Abstract

"Ja Kalzium, das ist alles." is an expression that is attributed to the Nobel-laureate Otto Loewi. This German sentence is often cited in the English literature and is, I believe, regularly misinterpreted ("Calcium is everything"), leading to articles titled "Kalzium ist nicht alles". Instead, a more appropriate translation would be "Calcium is universal." This concept is also the key to future calcium-related research. The many different signals that are mediated by calcium as a second messenger range from proliferation signals to the induction of apoptosis. Accordingly, the questions of how these signals are modulated, read by the cell and differentiated by the cell will be a general focus in calcium signalling-related research.