Lubitz Group

Group leader

Title	Name	First Name	Position
Prof. Dr.	Lubitz	Wolfgang	Director

 For more information on the principal investigator click here...

Researchers

Title	Name	First Name	Position
Dr.	Knipp	Markus	Group leader
Prof. Dr.	Gärtner	Wolfgang	Group leader
Dr.	Bill	Eckhard	Group leader
Dr.	Reijerse	Edward	Group leader

BioStruct Fellow

Title	Name	First Name	Position
Msc.	Rapatskiy	Leonid	PhD student

 For more information on the biostruct fellow click here...

Further Team Members

Technicians:	10
Master/Diploma students:	0
PHD/MD students:	12

Contact

Department Lubitz (Biophysikalische Chemie)
Max-Planck-Institut für Bioanorganische Chemie
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Stiftstraße 34-36
45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr

 +49 208 3063614
 +49 208 3063955
 

website:
 www.mpi-muelheim.mpg.de

Expertise in Structural Biology

• EPR spectroscopy (cw/pulse, multifrequency/high field, variable temperature)
• ENDOR (electron-nuclear double resonance)
• ELDOR (electron-electron double resonance)
• MCD spectroscopy (low temperature and variable field)
• Microcalorimetry
• Time Resolved Absorption & Fluorescence Spectroscopy
• Mößbauer Spectroscopy (variable field, low temperature)
• Vibrational Spectroscopy (FTIR and Resonance Raman)

 click here for further information

Main areas of research interest

• Structure and function of hydrogenases
• Molecular mechanism of photosynthesis
• Light-induced water splitting (water oxidase)
• Molecular mechanisms of nitric oxide transmitting heme proteins
• Photochemistry and signal transduction of biological photoreceptors
  ( http://ewww.mpi-muelheim.mpg.de/bac/index_en.php)

Facilities

The laboratories cover the following gene technology security levels:	S1
The laboratories cover the following biohazard levels:	BSL1

Laboratory Equipment

General equipment available in the laboratories:

• Biochemistry
• Biophysics
• Cell culture
• Molecular biology
• Biotechnology
• Microbiology
• Org. Chemistry
• Biocomputing
• Anorg. Chemistry

Special equipment, which is not generally available in most laboratories:

• EPR Spectrometers (10 instruments, 2 - 250 GHz)
• Glove Boxes
• NMR Spectrometers (250, 400, and 500 MHz)
• Laser Flash Photolysis
• Stopped-Flow UV/Vis
• Rapid-Mixing Freeze-Quench Equipment
• Pipetting Robot
• MALDI-TOF-MS
• Microcalorimetric Detection Instrument
• Time Resolved Absorption Fluorescence Spectrometer
• Microarray Reader
• Peptide Synthesizer
• Squid Magnetometer
• MCD Spectrometer (11Tesla)
• Resonance Raman Spectrometer
• Step-Scan FTIR
• 3 Mößbauer Spectrometers (low temperature, high field)

Non-standard methods, which are established in the laboratory:

• Production and handling of oxygen sensitive and light sensitive proteins and cofactors
• Sample excitation by short laser pulses
• Trapping of reactive intermediates (Freeze quench, stopped flow)
• Handling and detection of nitric oxide and nitric oxide releasing compounds
• Metal substitution in metalloproteins
• Isotope labelling
• Protein crystallography

Important references

• W. Lubitz, E. J. Reijerse, J. Messinger (2008). Solar Water-Splitting into H₂ and O₂: Design Principles of Photosystem II and Hydrogenases. Energy Environ. Sci. 1, 15-31.
• W. Lubitz, E. Reijerse, M. van Gastel (2007). [NiFe] and [FeFe] Hydrogenases Studied by Advanced Magnetic Resonance Techniques. Chem. Rev. 107, 4331-4365.
• W. Lubitz, F. Lendzian and R. Bittl (2002). Radicals, Radical Pairs and Triplet States in Photosynthesis. Acc. Chem. Res. 35, 313-320.
• Losi, A., Polverini, E., Quest, B. & Gärtner, W. (2002). First evidence for phototropin-like blue-light receptors in prokaryots. Biophys. J. 82, 2627-2634.
• Knipp, M., Yang, F., Berry, R. E., Zhang, H., Shokhirev, M. & Walker, F. A. (2007). Spectroscopic and functional characterization of nitrophorin 7 from the blood-feeding insect Rhodnius prolixus reveals an important role of its isoform-specific N-terminus for proper protein function. Biochemistry 46, 13254-13268.