Nucleic Acid Biochemistry

Nucleic acids are essential biomolecules for the storage and transmission of genetic information required for the preservation and proliferation of life. As genetic information is transformed into the molecular building blocks of cells, nucleic acids adopt complex structures with increasingly diverse functional roles. In the Department of Bioscience, ongoing research covers a broad range of topics in nucleic acid biochemistry ranging from mechanistic studies of DNA replication to systems level genome-wide analysis of tRNAs. Beyond their vital role in cells, our department takes advance of nucleic acids as versatile building materials for the creation of molecular devices and machines with new functions. We investigate nucleic acid structure, dynamics, and biomolecular interactions with methods ranging from integrative structural analysis using NMR, cryoEM, and X-ray crystallography to dynamic studies using single-molecule microscopy and functional analysis using next generation sequencing.

Research groups involved: Dietz, Duderstadt, Nedialkova, Sattler