Structural & Molecular Biology
In this area, Gene Center groups study the structure, mechanism and choreography of macromolecular complexes in genome, ribosome and RNA biology, as well as innate immunity. Our research teams want to understand how proteins and macromolecular complexes function at the structural and mechanistic level. A particular focus is the high resolution structural analysis of proteins and macromolecular complexes with cryo-electron microscopy, but also X-ray crystallography and other state of the art technologies.
The ultimate goals of this research direction are to understand how biological modules and systems emerge from the biochemical interplay of their macromolecular components, to work towards a structural biology of the cell, and to understand what the molecular bases of human diseases are.