Introduction:

The great research area of our group is „Biosupramolecular Chemistry“. Since the nobel prize in 1987 the relatively young discipline of Supramolecular Chemistry has considerably matured. However, applications in the field of biology are still very rare.

In our group we design, synthesize and optimize new noncovalent binding motifs for biomacromolecules. These are subsequently covalently linked to yield hybrid molecules, whose affinities and specificities for a given target are studied and continuously improved. From this procedure tailored ligands evolve for proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, which are able to interfere with biological processes by entirely new mechanisms of action. In close collaboration with biologists and medical researchers these potential drugs are tested first in vitro and later also in vivo. Ultimately, we intend to use the above-delineated concept to carry the principles of Supramolecular Chemistry deeply into biology.

Research topics:

• Molecular clips and tweezers for enzyme inhibition

• Molecular clips and tweezers against pathological protein aggregation

• β-Sheet breakers based on trimeric aminopyrazoles

• Affinity copolymers for protein surface recognition

• Artificial signal transduction with messenger compounds

• DNA recognition by tailored ligands for the major groove