Research groupResearch Unit

Adam Lange

Molecular Biophysics

Portrait

We use solid-state NMR spectroscopy and a variety of other biophysical methods to study protein structure and dynamics. The systems of interest comprise membrane proteins in the context of a native-like lipid bilayer environment and supramolecular assemblies such as type three secretion needles or cytoskeletal filaments.


Detecting the architecture and motion of proteins

Proteins are long-chain macromolecules that are usually folded three-dimensionally into a complex architecture. To understand the function of a protein, it is helpful to know its structure. Researchers usually study proteins in soluble or crystalline form. However, many proteins cannot be easily investigated in this way, for instance membrane proteins in a lipid bilayer. For this reason we also use solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (solid-state NMR) to analyze the structure and dynamics of proteins. This technique allows us to study insoluble and non-crystalline proteins and in addition to protein structure also to investigate chemical details, interaction with water and lipid molecules, and functionally relevant protein dynamics. The latter aspect is important because proteins are not rigid structures with a fixed architecture, but have moving parts similar to machines. To conduct solid-state NMR investigations, we place samples in a strong superconducting magnet (external field up to 20 T, i.e. ~400,000 times stronger than the earth’s magnetic field), rotate them rapidly (up to 100,000 revolutions per second; magic-angle spinning) and investigate them spectroscopically using radio waves. Important applications of our work are the analysis of membrane proteins in their natural lipid environment and the 3D structure determination of cellular molecular machines.

 


Group Members

 People

By PositionA-Z

Alumni

Claudia Bohg (PhD student)

Dr. Venita Decker (PhD student) – now Product Manager Compact NMR (TD/FT) at Bruker BioSpin GmbH, Karlsruhe

Dr. Jean-Philippe Demers (PhD student) – now Postdoctoral Fellow at University of British Columbia, Canada

Dr. Hannes Fasshuber (PhD student) – now IMS Manager, Vetropack Holding AG, Austria

Dr. Zrinka Gattin (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Coordinator of the Max Planck Graduate Center for Quantum Materials, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart

Prof. Dr. Guohua Lv (PhD student) – now Associate Professor at Jinan University, China

Dr. Birgit Habenstein (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Principal Investigator at CNRS, France

Dr. Kitty Hendriks (PhD student) – now PhD coordinator at Helmholtz-Zentrum, Berlin

Dr. Songhwan Hwang (PhD student) – now PostDoc, Research Group Prof. Dr. Han Sun, FMP

Dr. Antoine Loquet (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Research Director at CNRS, France

Prof. Dr. Ann-Christin Poeppler (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Professor at University of Wuerzburg

Dr. Pascal Sanchez Carranza (Postdoctoral coworker) - now Business Development Manager at Analytica Alimentaria GmbH

Dr. Robert Schneider (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Application Scientist, Bruker BioSpin, Switzerland

Dr. Benjamin Schomburg (PhD student) – now Laboratory Manager at Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Universitaetsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein

Prof. Dr. Chaowei Shi (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Professor at USTC, Hefei, China

Dr. Suresh Vasa (Postdoctoral coworker) – now at TU Dortmund, Research Group Prof. Dr. Rasmus Linser

Prof. Dr. Vinesh Vijayan (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Associate Professor at IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India

Prof. Dr. Shengqi Xiang (Postdoctoral coworker) – now Group Leader at University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

Dr. Maximilian Zinke (PhD student) – now PostDoc at Institut Pasteur Paris, France

 

B.Sc. and M.Sc. students:

Richard Bartels (B. Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

Leonard Constien (B.Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU  Berlin

Katja Frenzel (B.Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

Maxine Gripberg (M.Sc. student) – Biotechnology, Lund University Sweden

Lasse Helmstaedt (B.Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

Jutta Hoffmann (M.Sc. student) – Biochemistry, FU Berlin

Anna Kaczmarek (M.Sc. student) – Medical Chemistry, University Wrocław

Jaesub Kim (B.Sc student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

Julia Ruta (B.Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

René Schmiedler (B.Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

Stefanie Wenzel (M.Sc. student) – Biophysics, HU Berlin

Job offers

Currently, we have open positions for highly motivated PhD and Master’s students and post-doctoral fellows. Candidates with a background in biochemistry, biophysics or related subjects and a strong interest in spectroscopy and/or structural biology are welcome to apply.