Biophysics, EU project scalalife.eu, remote visualisation, high performance computing

Responsible for two key research areas. Firstly, monitoring the dynamicsof DNA melting in solution on a time scale ranging from femtoseconds tonanoseconds (important insights for the understanding of gene expression and to improve biotechnologies like polymerase chain reaction, PCR). Secondly, elucidating the photo-stability of nucleobases in the gas phase (helps to understand the underlying mechanisms that lead to gene mutation and diseases like skin cancer).

The doctoral thesis addressed two important biophysical questions: i) What is the influence of the solvent on the conformational dynamics of biomolecules? It could be shown that the solvent viscosity influences structural rearrangements of a small peptide on timescales >5ps. ii) How fast is the diffusion controlled contact formation in peptides? The combination of transient absorption and laser flash photolysis allowed to monitor the loop formation of peptides on timescales ranging from… Show more The doctoral thesis addressed two important biophysical questions: i) What is the influence of the solvent on the conformational dynamics of biomolecules? It could be shown that the solvent viscosity influences structural rearrangements of a small peptide on timescales >5ps. ii) How fast is the diffusion controlled contact formation in peptides? The combination of transient absorption and laser flash photolysis allowed to monitor the loop formation of peptides on timescales ranging from picoseconds to microseconds. These experiments helped to establish a speed-limit for protein folding. This has important influences to the field of protein folding since the maximum rate constant is needed to estimate enthalpies and free energies of folded and unfolded proteins. Show less