Fahmy (Honorary Professorship)
Almost all cellular communication and regulatory processes depend on structural transitions in proteins. Physical interactions play the dominant role and can proceed without involvement of chemical reactivity. We use spectroscopic and molecular biology techniques to investigate such molecular processes in real time and derive their energetics. For proteins of the cell membrane, we develop novel DNA-nanotechnology-based membrane particles and supramolecular DNA-assemblies to support such particles for modern structural biology applications. The largely unknown implication of water molecules in switching processes of membrane proteins is currently in the focus of our work and will be further studied with the novel Tera-Hertz light source at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf.
For more information about our research, please visit the HZDR Website
Group Leader: Prof. Dr. Karim Fahmy