We are broadly interested in research at the interface
between biological and physical sciences. Currently, our research centers
around two research themes, namely the physical modeling of structurally
known photosynthetic systems and the study of model systems for magnetoreception
in animals.
Photosynthetic systems are known in atomic resolution for a number of
species. They provide a unique challenge and opportunity for physical modeling,
because they are among the largest and most complex cellular machineries
whose structure is known. We have made great progress in understanding
how
photosynthetic systems harvest sunlight by using quantum physics to
predict all relevant energy transfer steps in the photosynthetic process.
While the physical description was first developed for the photosynthetic
system of purple bacteria, we have recently applied it successfully also
to photosystem I of cyanobacteria, demonstrating the transferability of
the physical modeling approach between different biological systems. With
the gained conceptual understanding of the light harvesting process, we
can now study how to design (artificial) systems with higher efficiency
or higher protection against photodamage.
A new field of study is the question how
subunits govern the size and shape of protein assemblies, a question
that is of great relevance to the assembly of protein machines in cells
in general. In studying this question, the circular light harvesting complexes
of purple bacteria are an ideal model system, because they self assemble
from identical subunits into rings of different sizes for different species
and atomic resolution structures of three ring complexes of different size
are known.
In the longstanding problem of how
animals perceive the magnetic field of the earth, we use electrodynamics
and spin chemistry to analyze which potential primary reception mechanisms
are sufficiently sensitive to detect the weak geomagnetic field. These
studies led us to propose a new chemical mechanism for magnetic compass
orientation in animals. We are currently investigating and collaboratively
designing experiments to verify this idea that could solve a very fundamental
problem in sensory biology.
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