Macromolecular Complexes
Macromolecular complexes are fascinating cellular machineries controlling almost all fundamental processes in higher eukaryotic cells. A detailed understanding of the functionalities of these complexes is a major focus of contemporary biology. We focus our work on challenging ribonucleoprotein complexes and dynamic, membrane-embedded protein assemblies involved in the biogenesis of transfer RNAs and the onset of adaptive immunity, respectively. Our research combines molecular, cell and structural biology with biochemical and biophysical techniques. We apply and further develop state-of-the-art expression technologies in insect and mammalian cells to derive high quality samples for structural studies by X-ray crystallography and single-particle electron cryo-microscopy. For difficult-to-express targets we develop purification strategies to isolate specimens directly from source. With our multidisciplinary approach we not only tackle basic biological questions, but also try to understand rare human diseases.
A great work with the Moeller and Tampé labs.
