Invited Speakers

  Dr. Martin Blackledge

Institut de Biologie Structurale, IBS Grenoble, CEA, Grenoble France

  Dr. Peter Cherepanov

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK

  Prof. Dr. Oliver Ernst

Canada Excellence Research Chair in Structural Neurobiology, University of Toronto, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  Prof. Dr. Ulrich Benjamin Kaupp

Molekulare Neurosensorik, Forschungszentrum caesar, Bonn, Germany

  Dr. Knud H. Nierhaus

Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik, Berlin, Germany; Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

  Dr. Crina Nimigean

Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York, USA

  Prof. Dr. Hartmut Oschkinat

Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Berlin, Germany

  Prof. Dr. Jacob Piehler

University of Osnabrück, Department of Biology, Osnabrück, Germany

  Prof. Dr. Matthias Rief

Physik-Department, TU Munich, Germany

  Dr. Christine Ziegler

Max Planck Institut für Biophysik, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Martin Blackledge is group leader at the Institute de Biologie Structurale Jean-Pierre Ebel (IBS) in Grenoble, France. He is an expert on liquid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of proteins. Key research interests of his �Protein Dynamics and Flexibility by NMR� group are conformational flexibility of proteins in their different forms and the complex relationship between molecular motion and biological function and malfunction. His research spans from high resolution studies of the conformational energy landscape of folded proteins to the highly flexible behavior of intrinsically unfolded proteins.

Peter Cherepanov Peter Cherepanov is a Reader in Virology at Imperial College London, UK. The main focus of his research is the mechanism of the retroviral DNA integration machinery and its interactions with the host cell.

Oliver Ernst picture and description will follow shortly

Ulrich Benjamin Kaupp picture and description will follow shortly

Knud H. Nierhaus is group leader at the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik. His group is interested in various aspects of ribosomes such as the mechanistics of assembly of bacterial ribosomes. Current examples are: (i) The functional interplay of the three tRNA-binding sites on the ribosome, the A, P and E sites, in the course of protein synthesis. (i) The importance of universal but non-canonical factors of protein synthesis such as EF4 and YbeB. Further aspects are inhibition mechanisms of antibiotics and preparations of functional complexes, the structure of which is analyzed in cooperation with Christian M. T. Spahn at the Charité, Berlin.

Crina Nimigean is Assistant Professor of Physiology and Biophysics in Anesthesiology at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Her research is multi-disciplinary, combining structural and functional approaches to address fundamental mechanistic questions about the properties of ion channels. The current primary focus is on investigating gating, permeation, selectivity, modulation by ligands as well as interactions with putative accessory proteins in prokaryotic potassium channels such as KcsA, MthK, and MloK1.

Hartmut Oschkinat picture and description will follow shortly

Jacob Piehler is Professor of Biophysics and Managing director of the Center of Advanced Light Microscopy at the Department of Biology of the University of Osnabrück. His interests are protein-protein interactions involved in cytokine receptor assembly and signalling. These interactions are reconstituted in vitro using solid-supported membranes and explored by multiparameter solid phase detection and single molecule imaging techniques. Diffusion and assembly of signalling complexes are also explored in life cells by single molecule imaging techniques. For these purposes, biofunctional surface architectures and posttranslational labelling techniques are developed.

Matthias Rief Matthias Rief is a full professor of Biophysics at Technische Universität München. During his career he has developed and applied single molecule spectroscopy techniques like AFM and optical tweezers. He is interested in understanding the mechanics of molecular motors and the fundamental role played by the energy landscape of a biomolecule in response to tension.

Christine Ziegler Research in the group of Dr. Christine Ziegler at the MPI of Biophysics in Frankfurt focuses on stress response mechanisms in both prokaryotes (including pathogens) and eukaryotes. Her expertise is on the investigation of structure and function of membrane transporters and other proteins involved in osmotic stress response using a broad spectrum of different methods ranging from molecular biology and microbiology to structural biology and biophysical techniques. The most advanced project in the Ziegler�s lab is the molecular mechanism of osmosensing and regulation in the Na+/ betaine transporter BetP from Corynebacterium glutamicum that is a member of the BCCT- family. The structure of BetP was solved in C. Ziegler�s group by X-ray crystallography and electron crystallography of 2D crystals.