The FMP conducts basic research in Molecular Pharmacology with a focus on the identification, characterization, and manipulation of novel biological targets for pharmacological interference. These targets, mostly proteins and protein complexes, interact with bioactive molecules that bind and influence the target’s biological function, with consequences for cell physiology and the entire organism. Research at the FMP follows an interdisciplinary approach, combining structural biology, genetics, biochemistry, chemical biology, and bio-imaging to develop novel strategies to monitor and manipulate biological function. Differently from classical pharmacological approaches we address biological function of targets and bioactive molecules from a molecular mechanistic rather than an application-based perspective. 

Research at the FMP is carried out in three scientific sections, Molecular Physiology and Cell Biology, Structural Biology, and Chemical Biology that intimately collaborate in multiple ways.