Biomedical Science

The BMBF Corus project is characterising cellular receptor proteins that are used by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) for cell entry. Scientists in Prof. Daniel Hoffmann's laboratory have recently developed one of the world's most accurate computer-aided methods for predicting the structure of these receptor proteins. The team also developed a precise method of determining the resistance of HIV to a new class of agents known as maturation inhibitors. A further focus of the bioinformatics research was in the field of molecular structure recognition. Stanislav Jakuschev developed a computer program called "EpitopeMatch" that is one of the fastest procedures for identifying similarities in molecular structure.
A BMBF project under the direction of Prof. Peter Bayer focuses on the development of small synthetic molecules and contrast agents, which after docking onto tumour cell-binding molecules should enable the detection of metastases by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).