BRC Group Page
Institute of BiophysicsThe
MEMBRANE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS
scientific research group
Summary of the main projects:
Structure-function relationship,
dynamics and thermodynamics of selected
(i) proton- and (ii) electron-transport membrane proteins (V-ATPase and
cytochrome b-561, respectively) in their lipid environment. (iii)
Biophysics of protein folding, insertion and assembly in the membrane and
at the membrane-water interface, related to the biological function of
membrane active polypetides. (iv) Structural details of lipid-protein
interaction, and functional consequences of its perturbations, in selected
native membranes. Common in these projects is the focus on the role of the
protein-lipid interface, and in general it's physical and chemical state,
in regulating the structure, dynamics and function of membrane proteins or
proteins functionally associated with the membrane. These studies are
carried out using chromatographic, various spectroscopic, calorimetric and
computational methods. (v) Extra efforts are taken to improve and combine
spectroscopic and molecular modelling methods into a
function-controlled spectroscopy-based structural biology
suite.